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The Everglades 



AND 



Other Essays Relating 

TO 

Southern Florida 




BY 

JOHN GIFFORD, D. OEc 

Formerly Assistant Professor of 
Forestry, Cornell University. Author 
of "Practical Forestry," etc. 



Published by tlie 

EVERGLADE LAND SALES CO. 
M'AML FLORIDA 



SECOND EDITION 



I- ■^n 



COPYRIGHT. 1911 

BY 

EVERGLADE LAND SALES CO. 



COPYRIGHT, 1912 

BY 

EVERGLADE LAND SALES CO. 



'K4> f 



DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY 

of 

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE BROWARD 

tha 
"FATHER OF THE EVERGLADE DRAINAGE PROJECT* 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. PAGE 

The Everglades of Florida and tlie Landes of FrarT^e. From Con- 

sc, vatioii, 1909 1 

A Tribute to Broward. From the Atlanta Georgian 12 

CHAPTER n. 
Southern Florida. Forestry and Irrigation, 1904 13 

CHAPTER HI. 
Trees as an Aid to Drainage. From the Spanish, in La Hacienda 21 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Coco Palm. Garden Magazine, 1910 27 

CHAPTER V. 
The Lime and the Sapodilla. Garden Magazine, 1910 Zi 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Banana and the Papaw. Garden Magazine, 1910 38 

CHAPTER VII. 
What Will Grow in the Everglades. Everglade Magazine 42 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Valuable Trees for the Everglades. Everglade Magazine 48 

CHAPTER IX. 
Some Common Florida Plants. Everglade Magazine 52 

CHAPTER X. 
Vines for Everglade Planting. Everglade Magazine 56 

CHAPTER XI. 

Mahogany in South Florida and the West Indies. Woodcraft, 1909.. 60 

CHAPTER XIT. 
Bungalow Construction in South Florida. Everglade Magazine 83 

CHAPTER XIII. • 
The Everglades of Florida. Southland Magazine 95 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The Problem of Growing Pineapples for Market. Gar J<7;i Magazine . . 104 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Mango, the Best of All the Tropical Fruits. Garden Magazine . . . 109 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Guava and the Rose Apple, Garden Magazine, 1911 114 



CONTENTS— Continued. 

CHAPTER XVII. PACK 

Rubber in South Florida, Everglade Magazine (Feb., 1911) 117 

CHAPTER XVni. 
Coffee and Vanilla in South Florida, Everglade }fagaciiie 124 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Fruit Quality in South Florida, Everglade Magazine 129 

CHAPTER XX. 
New Roots for Old Trees, Everglade Magazine 135 

CHAPTER XXI. 

How to Get a Lot of Work Out of a Small Windmill, Everglade 
Magazine 141 

CHAPTER XXII. 
^\'hat is Muck ? Everglade Magazine 146 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Everglade Sanitation, Everglade Magazine 153 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

A Home Orchard Plan with a List of the Principal Fruits of South 
Florida, Alphabetically Arranged. Everglade Magazine 160 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The Humble Koonti, Garden Magazine 170 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The .A.ustralian Pine — a Promising Tree for South Florida, Ei-erglade 
Magazine 1 77 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
The Gumbo Limbo, Everglade Magazine 183 

CHAPTER XXVII 1. 
Camphor and Cajeput 186 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
Two Promising Bush Fruits for Florida 192 

CHAPTER XXX. 
Shade for Tropical Fruits, Everglade Magazine 156 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
A List c)f the Trees of South Florida, Native and Introduced 203 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

p^GE 

\ie\vs of Arcachon in France on the Bay of Biscay and Miami, Flor- 
ida, on Biscayne Bay Frontispiece 

Natives of the Landes of France 2 

A Scene in the Landes before Drainage 3 

Tapping a Pine for Resin in the Landes of France 6 

Indian Family in Canoes on tlie Miami River 8 

A Cypress Island in the Everglades 9 

On the Beach at Cape Florida 26 

Coco- Palm Grove on the Keys 26 

A Camphor Tree 31 

Picking Sapodillas 32 

A Lime Tree on Elliott's Key 32 

A Papaw Tree in Full Fn;:t yj 

State Canal in the Everglades 44 

In the Hammock on Key Largo 59 

In the Mangrove Swamp 76 

A Cool Tile Covered Bungalow 82 

A Shingled Bungalow "^2 

A Cuban Country House in the Tobacco District of Pinar del Rio... 84 

A Cuban Bohio 85 

Type of Inexpensive Bungalow Suited to the Climate of South Florida 86 

A Patio Floor Plan 87 

A Cistern Plan 88 

Floor Plan of Flat Roofed Unit House 89 

Side View of Flat Roofed Unit House 90 

Plan of a Strong, Attractive Fence 91 

A House for Poultry 92 

Two Views of Unit House in Process of Construction 94 

A Scene in the Pineland, a Rock Road and a Rock Fence 99 

A Scene, in Egypt where Flat Roofed Houses Prevail 100 

A Field of Pineapples on the East Coast of Florida 103 

Sundersha Mango Tree 108 

A Rubber Tree (Ficus aiirea), in Florida, on tlic South Side of the 

Miami River 113 

Bearing Coffee Tree, United States Experimental Station. Miami 123 

Vanilla Shed, United States Experimental Station, Miami 126 

Diagram of Earth Zones 131 

Diagram of Zones on Mountain Side 132 

Diagram Showing How the Part Above the Bud Union Has Outgrown 

the Stock 136 

Inarching— Reinforcing a Tree with Xew Roots 137 

A Corkscrew Root ' -^ ■ 

Diagram of a Windmill and Tank 142 

Diagram of a Loose Tile Irrigating and Drainage System 143 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS— Continued. 

PAGE 

Transverse Section of a Cesspool 157 

Wooden P>ame for the Construction of a Concrete Cesspool 158 

A Home Orchard Plan 162 

A Fine Type of Avocado 164 

A Fine Type of Banana Produced on .Muck Soil at Cocoanut Grove.. 165 

An Avocado Grove 166 

The Ti-es, a Little Known but Promising Fruit 168 

The Koonti-log. Copied from U. S. Ethnological Report on the Senii- 

noles 171 

Mature Koonti Plants 172 

Seed and Seedlings of Koonti 172 

Root Nodules of Koonti 174 

Avenue of Australian Pines 176 

A Gumbo Limbo Tree on the Road between Miami and Cocoanut 

Grove 182 

The Camphor Tree 188 

A Group of Young Cajeput Trees, Three Years Old and Twelve to 

Eighteen Feet High 150 

The Carissa 193 

The Surinam Cherry 194 

Coffee Shaded by Pithecolobium Saman Trees in Porto Rico 202 

West Indian Almond Trees Bent by the Wind 203 

An Avenue of West Indian Almond Trees 204 

A Mahogany Tree in the Bahamas 205 

The Live Oak 206 

Seminole Indians Coming to ]\Iianii with Venison and Skins 207 

An Avenue of Royal Palms. Another Fine Tree for Mucky Soil 208 

A Branch of the Candlenut Tree 209 

A Mastic Tree in the Hammock 210 

The Sugar Apple 212 

The Wild Tamarind 214 

A Cedrela Tree 215 

A Rubber Killing a Coco Palm 217 

A Bamboo Grove in Japan. A Fine Tree for Mucky Soil 219 

A Piece of Reclaimed Land in Holland 222 



PREFACE. 

I have been writing on the subject of the Everglades and 
South Florida in general since 1904 in various magazines. Re- 
quests for this literature have come to me from time to time and 
in ever-increasing number until my reprints are exhausted. It 
is impossible to answer all the letters which come to me request- 
ing information in reference to this region. Friends have sug- 
gested many times that I collect some of these articles into book 
form. This I have attempted to do in the following volume. I 
am well aware that as a book it has many shortcomings and, 
owing to the fact that it contains articles hastily written at odd 
times and for different purposes, there is considerable repetition 
and perhaps even contradiction. If, however, it succeeds in 
arousing interest in this great Everglade drainage project and 
offers helpful suggestions to newcomers, its mission will have 
been fulfilled, and its author and publisher will be satisfied. I 
wish to thank the various magazines for permission to copy these 
articles and the Everglade Land Sales Company for assuming 
the burden of publication. 

John Gifford. 
Miami, Florida, 1911. 



THE SECOND EDITION. 

The publication of this work was an experiment. The sales 
have been sufficient, however, to prove that this Everglade 
Drainage Project in particular, and South Florida in general, are 
commanding the attention and interest of the English reading 
public throughout the world, and to warrant the expense of this 
enlarged and improved edition. 

The Publishers. 

Miami, Florida, 1912. 




ARCACHOX — ON THE BAY OF BISCAY. A GREAT RKSORT WHICH DEVELOPED 
AFTER THE RECLAMATION OF THF. LANDES OF FRANCE, CORRESPONDING TO 
MIAMI, ON BISCAYNE BAY, WHICH WILL DEVELOP IN A SIMILAR WAY WHEN 
THE EVERGLADES ARE DRAINED. 




MIAMI, ON niSCAVXE HAY. 



From Conservation, igog. 



The Everglades 



AND 



Southern Florida 



CHAPTER I. 



THE EVERGLADES OF FLORIDA AND THE LANDES 

OF FRANCE. 




URIXG a recent visit to the great work of 
reclamation now in progress in the Everglades 
of Florida, I was impressed with its resem- 
blance in many respects to the great work the 
French have accomplished in the Landes of 
France, and with the fact that ex-Governor 
Broward, after many trials and tribulations, is 
succeeding, just as did the French engineers 
after similar troubles. This also applies to the work of Enrico 
Dalgas in the reclamation of the Heathland of Denmark. 

The drainage of the Everglades is now well under way, and 
almost every unprejudiced person who visits this work becomes 
an enthusiastic convert. Just as the French engineers prac- 
tically added a new province to France, Broward has been instru- 
mental in promoting a work which will convert a vast, useless 
waste into what promises to be the most productive part of 
Florida, if not the most productive area of land of equal size in 
the whole United States of America. This drainage is being done 
at the insignificant cost of about $1 per acre; and when done the 
land will be ready at once for the plow and for the production 
of tender crops, the like of which cannot be produced else- 
where in the L^nited States, and at a time wlicn the rest of the 
country is frost-bound. This is no small area ; it is many miles 
in extent, and is capable of yielding, at small outlay, enormous 
croi)s of the most delicate tropical products, as well as Northern 

1 



THE EVERGLADES 



vegetables, in midwinter. A visit to this region, even at this 
time (May, 1909), at the very beginning of the work, since it is a 
colossal task, will convince the most skeptical person that this 
is no idle dream or wild land scheme, but a feasible, practical 
piece of good business. After inspecting this work, one natural)}' 
wonders why it was not done long ago. It is not a complex 
engineering problem; it is merely a matter of digging, so tliat 




NATIVKS UF TllK I.A.N DKS OF FRANCE. 
nV DKAl.NAGE. 



.\ KliGlUX KKCl.Al.MED 



the water in tliis great Everglade basin can flow into the sea. 
r>ehind the ij;iant maws df these dredges wliicli. when they work 
day and night, are literally eating their way thruugh rock, mud 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

and sand at the rate of a mile a month per dredge, there are left 
broad, navigable canals, which are comparable only to those of 
Holland, and which will afford miles of placid water courses, 
avenues of tratific for the products of the land, and a never- 
ending source of enjoyment to pleasure craft. 

In the case of the Everglades, the exit of the water to the 
sea is prevented by a limestone rim. In the case of the Landes 
it was due to a bank of wind-blown sand, which clogged all out- 
lets to the sea. The resemblance of the two conditions is much 
closer than is at first apparent, since this very rock rim was 




A SCENE IN THE LANDES OF EUANCE BEFORE RECLAMATION. THE NATIVES 
WALK ABOUT ON STILTS. ( I'HOTO OF AN ILLUSTRATION IN AN OLD FRENCH 
GEOGRAPHY.) 



once, no doubt, limestone sand blown in by the wind and late 
hardened into rock. I think geologists now generally recognize 
that this rocky rim is of eolian formation. The main difference 
between the two propositions is that, in the case of the Landes, 
it was silicious sand, which cHd not liarden into rock, but re- 

3 



THE EVERGLADES 

mainecl mobile, shifting back and forth with every caprice of 
the wind, while, in the case of the Everglades rim, it was lime- 
stone sand, which soon hardened into solid limestone rock. As 
in sand dunes, the wind laminations show in the rock like leaves 
in a book, recording forever the character of its formation. 
Some distance up the Coast, in the great pineapple district of 
Eden and Jensen, the obstructing dune consists of silicious sand. 
Southward the rim is not pure limestone in every instance but a 
calcareous sandstone, that is, granules of silicious sand cemented 
together with lime. 

Before further describing the Everglades, let me quote from 
mv notes made a few years ago, while visiting the Landes of 
France. Not only are the physical conditions similar, but there 
was the same opposition at the start. As in the case of the 
Everglades, the work in France was pushed by the personal 
initiative and persistency of one or two men, and the method of 
securing the funds for the purpose was very much the same. In 
the early part of the last century (before 1857), the condition of 
the flat, triangular plain known as the Landes, which is roughly 
bounded by the Bay of Biscay, the River Adour and the River 
Garonne, and the Medoc, was, in brief, as follows: There were 
miles of marshy, almost treeless wastes, covered mainly with a 
low growth of herbage. It was wet, unhealthy and sparsely 
inhabited. The few people who lived there depended upon their 
flocks. The accompanying picture show s a native of the Landes 
standing upon stilts, watching his sheep. He is dressed in a 
heavy sheepskin paletot. By standing on stilts, these shepherds 
can easily see their sheep in the bushes and grass, and can easily 
follow them through wet and marshy regions. Their spare time 
is spent in knitting stockings. The condition of the Landes is 
due to the immense sand dunes, which arrayed themselves along 
the shore of the r>ay of Biscay. 11icy moved inland, covered 
villages and occluded inlets. Bremonticr tells of a dune which 
aihanccd in a xiolcnt tcmjjest at the rate of two feet in three 
hours. Ihe damage done by these moving sands so increased 
that the government officials studied the work and devised and 
executed plans; and now, thank-^ to Dc X'illers. Chambrelcnt and 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

Bremontier, the pioneer workers, the Dunes and Landes are cov- 
ered with a beautiful growth of the maritime pine. The region 
is now a famous health resort, combining the beauties and pleas- 
ures of the seashore with those of a well-managed pine forest, 
which extends almost to the edge of the ocean. 

There are evidences that originally the Dunes were fixed 
naturally by forests. These forests were destroyed by vandals, 
and all attempts to stop these menacing mountains of sand 
failed. In 1778 a talented engineer, Baron Charlevoix de Villers, 
was sent to Arcachon for the purpose of forming a military post, 
lie saw at once the necessity of fixing the sand, and was, accord- 
ing to Grandjean, the first to establish the fact that the way to 
fix the Dunes is by means of plantations of pine. He met with 
troubles in his work, and was finally sent back to the Island 
of Santo Domingo. 

In 1784, Bremontier began the work, and it is said that, by 
using the results of De \^illers' labors, he finally succeeded in 
fixing the moving sand. 

The fixation of the Dunes rendered possible the work of M. 
Chambrelent, which was the reclamation of the Landes by drain- 
age and plantings. It is a unique example of personal initia- 
ive. M. Chambrelent, a young engineer in the Department of 
Bridges and Roads, in 1837, was sent to the Gironde to study 
the drainage of 800,000 hectares of land in the districts of Gas- 
cony and the Landes. His conclusions were not accepted, so he 
bought some land and put in effect the measures he advocated. 
In 1855. the results of his experiments were submitted to an 
international jury. The jury was so favorably impressed that 
It recommended the application of Chambrelent's plans for the 
entire region, and in 1857 a law^ was passed requiring the Com- 
munes to do this work. The Communes paid for it by selling a 
part of this land, which increased in value after the completion 
of the work. This region was 100 meters above sea level, flat 
and sandy. It was underlain with a hard-pan called "alios." In 
summer it was a bed of burning sand, in winter in a state of 
constant inundation, while between the two was a period of pes- 
tilence. The country was characterized by sterility and 
insalubrity. 

5 




I.M'VISC A nXK KOK KKSIX ,X THK I.ANDKS OK FKANCK. NOTH THK LIPS TO 

CATCH THK PITCH. 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

A complete system of drain ditches was dug and the seeds of 
pine were sown. In 1865 all works of drainage were complete. 
By the fixation of the Dunes and the drainage of the Landes 
650.000 hectares of land were made productive. Formerly, if 
one wished to buy land he mounted a hill and called in a loud 
voice ; the land over which his voice carried was worth 25 francs. 
"A man," says Grandjean, "was forced to take some of this sand 
for a debt. He became a millionaire later by selling it in small 
parcels." The first summers, the visitors lived in the resin- 
gatherers' cabins ; now every luxury is afforded the 200,000 
tourists who come there every year. In the Landes a man could 
buy a farm for a few francs, but it required over two acres to 
support one sheep. In less than a century the population sex- 
tupled, while that of a large part of the rest of the country 
either remained stationary or decreased. The fecundity of the 
French in places where there is plenty of room and opportunity 
is proverbial, as in Canada ; it is even so in the Landes, which, 
on being reclaimed, was equivalent to a new province or colony. 

All along the East Coast of Florida there are dunes of snow- 
white sand covered with scrub pines and palmettoes. This fine, 
white, silicious sand, although naturally sterile, is excellent for 
the growth of pineapples in regions where there is sufficient 
warmth. Mile after mile of this sand along the line of the rail- 
road between the Everglades and the sea is used in the cultiva- 
tion of pineapples, which are fed a balanced ration of fertilizer, 
just as cows are fed a balanced ration of feed for the produc- 
tion of high-grade milk. 

The great Everglades Ijasin, extending from Lake Okeecho- 
bee to Miami and westward to the Gulf of Mexico, contains 
3.000.000 acres, more or less. The whole cultivated area of the 
State of Florida is estimated at only about a million acres. The 
Everglades are larger than Porto Rico or Jamaica and as big 
as Rhode Island and Delaware combined. This great area is 
mainly confined by dunes of sand and ridges of limestone rock. 
These ridges, like fingers, project into the Everglades and are 
usually covered with pine. Between these ridges are small glades 
on the edge of the main or "big glade." The accepted definition 



THE EX'ERGLADES 

of a glade is a narrow strip of grassy land between forests. 
Glade refers to a grassy area. The big glade is all or "ever" 
glade. In this way, no doubt, the term of Everglade originated. 
Here and there in the Everglades are islands covered with rich 
jungle or hammock hardwood growth. On these islands the 
Seminoles clear small areas, where they raise their cr()])s. 

We visited the Everglades from Fort Lauderdale. It was 
after a long period of heavy rains, and the mosquitoes were bad 
in the pine woods. We ascended the New River, a beautiful. 




I.XDIA.V F.V.Mll.V l.\ C.\.\Oi:S 0.\" .M1.\.M1 KIVKU. 



winding stream, generally dcei), but \ery deej) in places, one spot 
having a dejith of eighty-five feet. The banks were c|uite low 
and sandy and lined with moss-draped cypress, oak, ma])lc, mag- 
nolia, coco-plum, pond-apple, etc. After a short ride wc reached 
the begiiming of the drainage work — one long canal ran north- 
westward, with the dredge Everglades, another due westward, 
with the dredge Okeechobee, at work. These canals w ill run ab^ut 
twenty miles out into the Glades and will be met by a canal run- 
ning north and south from Lake Okeechobee to a point about 

8 



AND SOUTHERxN FLORIDA 

twenty miles west of Miami. The dredge Miami is now at 
work at the head of the Miami River; another dredge is at work- 
on the West Coast, opening the old Disston Canal into Lake 
Okeechobee. 

As these canals are finished, dams are made to hold back 
the water to facilitate dredging, showing rather a surprising 
amount of fall and how efifective these canals will prove in dis- 
charging the floods of water from this big area. I understand 




A CVPUESS ISLAND 1 X THE EVEKGLADKS. 



that the Government will permit the level of Lake Okeechobee 
to be lowered only four feet, since a federal appropriation has 
lieen made to dredge the Kissimmee River, which empties into 
the northern part of the lake. 

There were no mosquitoes in the Everglades during our 
visit, and crops already growing on the land, owned by eager 
settlers, show what can be done on lanrl only partially drained. 



THE EVERGLADES 

Western capitalists mainly have bought this land ; the money 
from the sales is doing the work, and the further it progresses 
the more the land will bring and the more eager people will be 
to get hold of it. The Board of Internal Improvement is wisely 
holding back much of the land from sale, knowing full well that 
as time goes on it will increase in value and thus yield ample 
funds for the continuation of this important work. In many 
cases the state has sold only the alternate sections. 

There are agents at work selling this lantl in every State in 
the Union. Men of wealth and influence are behind this project. 
If any one doubts its feasibility, he should come to Florida and 
see with his own eyes. Much praise is due ex-Governor Brow- 
ard for his work in this line, and in the years to come he will 
shine forth as the governor who really did something to add to 
the productivity and worth of his State. The man who makes 
two blades of grass grow where only one grew before is the 
])roverbial public benefactor; but the man who, by his energy 
and foresight inaugurates a movement to render 3,000,000 acres 
of waste land highly productive deserves endless commendation 
in this day, when we talk so much about the conservation of 
nature's resources. Mr. Broward is a masterful promoter ; the 
keynote of his campaign was drainage; he worked at it inces- 
santly while in office, and he has been working at it ever since, 
and has made good. 

We must not forget that this reclamation is in a land of 
perpetual summer in the only part of the mainland of the 
United States which is truly tropical, and where the productive 
capacity of the land is many times greater than in northern 
climes ; where not only a greater quantity, but a much greater 
variety of crops can be produced than elsewhere in this country. 

This may be far-fetched, but T can picture in my mind's 
eye long avenues of Eucalyptus. Australian pine and roval palms 
along these canals ; great masses of Hibiscus. AUamanda. Ole- 
ander, Bouganvillea. Poinciana, and countless other resplendent 
ornamentals aroimd thousands of neat homes surrounded by 
fields of peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, celery, onions, okra, arrow- 
root, tobacco, etc. ; also, no doubt, orange and grapefruit groves, 

10 



AND SOUTHERX FLORIDA 

as well as choice mangoes, avocadoes, and other tropical fruits. 
The canals filled with boats will lead to Miami and Biscayne 
Bay, the Arcachon and Biscay of Florida. 

The land of the moccasin, alligator and Seminole will see a 
great transformation in a very short time — it does not take long 
in a tropical country, especially on land where there is no forest 
to clear. 

It is more than a drainage scheme, since by means of dams 
and locks the water table may be kept at all times just where it 
is needed for irrigation purposes. The land is level, fertile, and 
free from alkali and other injurious minerals. The canals serve 
the triple purpose of drainage, irrigation and transportation. 

The soil is usually a black muck, in places several feet in 
thickness ; under this is usually a layer of marl ; under the marl, 
sand, and under the sand, limestone rock. There is considerable 
mineral matter mixed with this muck, and, although it will shrink 
some, I doubt if the shrinkage will ever prove a serious draw- 
back. By the application of lime, the cultivation of legumes, 
etc., this soil can be kept at a maximum state of fertility, so that 
five acres would be ample for the support of an ordinary family. 

The w'ater of the Everglades is usually heavily charged with 
lime, which is deposited on the surface of everything in a fine, 
flocculent state during the period of overflow. This deposit, 
added to the muck, no doubt, contributes much to the quality of 
the soil. There are deposited also the shells of many fresh- 
water mollusks. In short, with the fertile, easily worked soil, 
an abundance of water for irrigation, a tropical, healthful cli- 
mate, canals for transportation purposes, all within easy access, 
by both water and land, to our great northern markets, there isx 
a combination of favorable conditions which probably cannot be 
equaled elsewhere in the whole world. 

And lo ! the poor Seminole ; what of him ? At best, he is 
merely a renegade; and the time will soon come when he will 
have to put on pants and go to work on the land, join his rela- 
tives in Oklahoma, or die from the effects of too much bad 
whisky. 

11 



THE r.VERGLADES 

A TRIBUTE TO BROWARD FROM THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN. 

"Napoleon B. Rrovvard, the beloved Florida statesman, whose 
untimely death took place a few days ago, was the apostle of 
reclaiming Southern swamp lands — a pioneer in the work of 
saving the great inundated tracts to the productive resources of 
the South. 

"It was the dream of his life to do this for his State — to 
change the hundreds of square miles of the Everglades from a 
dreary waste of bog and morass to gardens teeming with fruits 
and vegetables — to make tv\o useful plants grow where none 
grew before. 

"It was a dream worthy the best quality of constructive 
statesmanship. He not only dreamed this dream, but he set 
about to put it into reality. He took it and his plan for its 
realization before the people of his State. 

"He met with cries that the builder always meets — 'It can't 
be done. Drain the Everglades ? Absurd !' 

"But the people had faith in him and his policies and they 
won. He was elected governor and secured the necessary legis- 
lative enactments to put his plan of draining the Everglades 
into operation. 

"It has l)een a success. Its effect is the same as if some great 
fertile island were gradually rising out of the ocean to add itself 
to Florida's riches. It is an ever-increasing source of income 
direct to the State and a source of additional thousands of inhab- 
itants and additional millions of invested capital. 

"In anticipation of its progress, land now under water and a 
few years ago worse than worthless is now selling for prices that 
are remarkable under the circumstances. 

"Broward was a pioneer in a movement that is going to mean 
much for every Southern State. In the South there are 87.000 
sq'uare miles of swam]) lands. In Georgia alone there are 4.210 
square miles or 2,694,400 acres. Making these lost acres serve 
the use of man and the good of civilization is a worthy task. 
Broward, the pioneer, has pointed the way. Let the leader^ in 
every Southern State follow it." 

12 



li'niten for Forestry and Irrigation in 1904. 




CHAPTER II. 
SOUTHERN FLORIDA. 

NOTES ON THE FOREST CONDITIONS OF THE SOUTHERNMOST PART 
OF THIS REMARKABLE PENINSULA. 

CCORDING to the report of the Biological 
Survey of the United States Department of 
Agriculture, there are three regions in the 
United States which helong to the Tropical 
Zone. One is in Southern Texas close to the 
mouth of the Rio Grande, another is along the 
Colorado River in Arizona and California, and 
the otlier in Southern Florida. 
The first two are hot and arid, the other is humid and pleas- 
ant throughout the major portion of the year. The southern- 
most part of Florida can rightfully claim, therefore, the dis- 
tinction of being the only humid or truly tropical part of the 
mainland of the United States — the only tropical part of this 
country which can be reached by rail. Early geographers arbi- 
trarily made the frigid zones and torrid zone the same number 
of degrees and then divided the balance of degrees left over 
between the two temperate zones. The lines called the tropics 
of Capricorn and Cancer, although of course perfectly straight 
on the map, are really very crooked and very difificult to defi- 
nitely locate. Some claim that the frost line is the limit; if this 
be so no part of Florida is in the tropics, since frost has occurred, 
in spots at least, throughout the whole peninsula. The best 
j^uide is the character of the vegetation, and wherever the coco 
palm, avocado, mango, pineapple, and hundreds of other strictly 
or characteristically tropical plants flourish and fruit without 
protection, the region is truly tropical. 

The territory referred to in this article is unique in another 



13 



iHE EVERGLADES 

respect. It is the only region of coral formation in the United 
States. These two peculiarities combine to render it a region of 
extreme interest to foresters and botanists. Here is field for 
research for many years to come, where many phases of plant 
ecology may be studied to better advantage than elsewhere on 
the continent. One can pass through all the climatic zones from 
the boreal to the tropical in going from the region of the pro- 
posed Appalachian Park to Biscayne Bay in a little more than 
twenty- four hours. Were the roads all good, it would be little 
more than a pleasant automobile trip. 

The part of Florida to which this article refers lies between 
the Everglades and the Florida Strait, and includes the territory 
around Miami, and southward to Cape Sable, including many 
coral keys, mangrove islands, and wooded islands in the Ever- 
glades. 

The vegetation of this district from a forestry standpoint 
may be divided into three distinct types — the hammock, the pine- 
land, and the mangrove swamp. It is, of course, impossible in 
so short a space to give more than a superficial description of 
these types. 

The hammock is undoubtedly the climax forest. It repre- 
sents the type that the rest would in time become were it not 
for fire, flood and other detrimental and retarding influences. 

The hammock is a tropical jungle, consisting of species of 
trees characteristic of the Antillcan Mora. IMost of these species 
produce a vigorous coppice, and the ground is covered with a 
rich black mold resulting from the leaves and detritus of these 
hardwoods. It is in the hammock where one finds mastic, crab- 
wood, satin-leaf, gumbo-limbo, princewood, whitewood, man- 
chinecl, and many other -rare and in many instances valuable 
woods. 

This hammock may be found in patches in the pineland, on 
islands in the hAcrglades. and on the keys nortli of liahia Honda. 
Strange to say, the southernmost keys are like the pineland of 
tlie mainland in cliaracter. Sand Key. seven miles to the 
southwest of Key West, is the southernmost j^oint in the United 
States. Although all the keys n(Mth of I'ahia Honda were once 

14 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

covered with a dense tropical growth, much of it has been cut 
for pineapple clearings. Jn many places, especially on Key 
Largo, it is still in virgin condition. Wherever these keys are 
above tidewater, the growth is hammock; when subject to over- 
flow, it is mangrove swamp. Some keys are all hammock ; 
others are all mangrove, and others have hammock centers 
fringed with mangrove. 

For half a century the timber on these keys has been cut, 
allowed to dry, and is then burnt. In the ashes a fine crop is 
produced, and fertilizers have never been used. The fact that 
pineapple patches are very combustible has caused these natives 
to burn cautiously. In referring to the vegetation of these keys, 
I cannot refrain from quoting the following from an article by 
the botanist Curtiss in "Garden and Forest," volume I, page 279 : 

"A person who is acquainted only with the vegetation of 
more northern states, or with that of Northern Florida in trav- 
ersing these keys, will find scarcely a tree or herb identical with, 
or even resembling those with which he has been acquainted. 
He may hear familiar names in use by the inhabitants, such as 
cherry and cedar, but on examination he will find the species 
thus designated to be entirely different from those which he has 
known by such names before. The curiosity is piqued at every 
step by some unfamiliar and interesting form of vegetation, and 
if the tourist be accompanied by one of the inhabitants he will 
learn much of the popular lore regarding names and uses, for 
these people are remarkably intelligent in regard to the vege- 
table and animal life of the region they inhabit. It will be found 
that almost all the adult inhabitants come from the Bahamas, 
that nearly all the trees and other plants are common to those 
islands, and, in short, that these islands have much more in 
common with the Lesser Antilles than with the Florida mainland. 

"A tour of the Florida Keys reveals nature and society under 
such peculiar conditions that any one who has never visited this 
insular region may rest assured that there remains in store for 
him at least one source of novel and enjoyable experience, 
though he may have traversed the mainland of the United 
States from Maine to California. As regards conformation and 

15 



THE EX'ERGLADES 

soil, the inhabitants and their pursuits, the surrounding waters 
and the marine hfe they support, these coral islands differ essen- 
tially from all other j)ortions of our vast country ; but in no 
particular do they present so striking a dissimilarity as in the 
vegetation which covers them." 

In spite of the mosquitoes these keys are charming places, 
especially Elliott's, which is bounded on one side by the waters 
of Biscayne Bay and on the other by the straits of Florida. 
They are protected from storms by a chain of coral reefs. Near 
at hand are the famous Sea Gardens. 

The pineland, although less rich and luxuriant in growth, is 
also peculiarly interesting. The rocky ridges or reefs, with 
sandy swales in between, are covered with pine and palmetto. 
The pine, strange to say, seems to shun the sandy swales. The 
sand of these swales is underlain usually with a reddish cal- 
careous clay, resulting from the disintegration of the coral rock. 
This rock may be found in all stages of disintegration. In the 
swales the palmetto is most luxuriant, and no doubt the absence 
of the pines in these places is due to this fact. The regenera- 
tion of these pines, in spite of fire and rock, is generally good. 
The pines grow right on the rock, the roots penetrate its crevices, 
and the tree is anchored to such extent that when it upturns the 
rock sometimes upturns with it. 

On the keys the soil is crumbled coral, and coral sand. On 
the mainland it is a limestone as soft in places as chalk and as 
hard in others as flint. In places it seems stratified or in plates 
and lifts out in good flat building stones, which harden on ex- 
posure; in others it is jagged, honeycombed, and filled with pot- 
holes and pockets ; in others it is coquina-like in character, and 
in others has an oolitic structure. 

The pine is Cuban pine (Finns FJliottii). It does not yield 
lesin satisfactorily, and is therefore not tapped. The wood is 
< if ten so heavy that it sinks in water, and on the whole is one 
of the meanest woods on earth to work with. The heart or light 
wood is durable, but it warjis to such extent and is so hard when 
drv that it i< cut. haulcfl to the mill, sawed into boards, and used 
for constructive purposes just as soon as possible. 

ir, 



AND SUUTHERX FLORIDA 

It is almost impossible to drive a nail into the dry wood with- 
out splitting it, and in order to saw it one must flood the tools 
with kerosene to prevent gumming. Mechanics shun it, although 
many people use it because of its cheapness. The sapwood 
soon rots and leaves a heavy, durable heart, which is in great 
demand for posts, ties, poles and fuel. Much of it is used in 
burning the coral rock into lime, and much of it is burnt up in 
the clearing simply to get rid of it. The "log-rolling" stage is 
still on in this district. In many cases it is blasted down with 
dynamite and then burnt; in others it is "deadened" and then 
burnt standing. It w6uld probably pay to distill this wood, since 
it could be secured cheaply and would yield large quantities of 
tar. 

Fire sweeps over these pine regions frequently. The pine 
needles, grass and palmettoes burn like tinder. The dry pine bark 
and rotten sapwood hold fire like punk. Fire gets down in the 
crevices of the rock, so that it is next to impossible to extinguish 
it. The efl^ect of fire on this rock is peculiar. It becomes a 
I)otent geological agent. It converts the rock into lime, which 
blakes when wet by rain or dew. In burning piles of brush, 
rocks are often thrown into the heap to check the flames or pre- 
vent the wind from blowing sparks. These rocks are burnt 
with the wood and crumble into soil. 

This rock crumbles into soil in the presence of decomposing 
organic matter. By the use of velvet beans, dynamite, and hard 
grubbing by Bahaman darkies, the roughest, most hopeless look- 
ing rock-bed may be converted into productive soil. 

There ought to be considerable nitrogen present in this soil, 
since the ground is often covered with thirty or more species of 
creeping legumes. There must be potash somewhere, since the 
palmetto ash is extremely rich. Few things will grow, how- 
ever, in this rock without the help of fertilizer. Plant-food 
materials may be there, but they are not available. The rock is 
usually wet, even in the driest times. In fact, under the limestone 
ridge there are channels of water running from the Everglades 
and bubbling out in the form of springs along the shores of 
Biscayne Bay. 

17 



THE E\ERGLADES 

All this pineland would in time become hammock, no doubt, 
were it not for forest tires. One can find all stages between the 
true hammock type and the pineland. Where pineland has been 
protected from lire, it becomes hammock-like in character. 

The type of forest called mangrove consists in places of pure 
red mangrove, the great land-former, but gradually merges into 
forest similar to hammock. The vegetation of the mangrove 
swamp consists of those species which can stand a salt-water 
bath occasionally. They are located on mud lands which are 
being gradually wrested from the sea. The red mangrove is 
chief among those plants which can thrive in salt water. With 
it. however, are often associated the coco palm, the seeds of 
which float in, become covered with wet seaweed, and then sprout 
and grow together with buttonwood, black mangrove, sea grape, 
and others. There are hundreds of thousands of acres of land 
in which mangrove predominates. Fringing these mud lands 
are often sand beaches. In the course of time, when this land 
becomes high and dry by the continued deposit of vegetable 
detritus, other trees, such as grow in the hammock, gain a foot- 
hold and spread. 

Hack of the rock ridge, whicli stretches along the coast from 
the region of Miami southward, is that vast territory called the 
Everglades. The extension of tree growth on the Everglades 
has been restrained by an excess of fresh water. With drain- 
age the hammock islands will quickly extend. A very large pro- 
portion of the tropical hammock trees of South Florida are berry 
producers. Such seeds are quickly disseminated by birds and 
other animals. In the Everglades there are hammock islands, 
on some of which the Seminole Indians live. This Everglade 
region, it is claimed, contains 3,760.000 acres. Since ten acres or 
less is sufficient for the support of a family in this climate, there is 
room for 376,000 families. The whole cultivated area of Flor- 
ida is estimated at 1,000,000 acres. It is interesting to compare 
the size of this wild territory with other parts of the world. 
For instance, the Everglades cover 5.875 square miles ; Porto 
Rico, 3.550 square miles; Rhode Island. 1.250 square miles; 
Delaware. 2,050 square miles ; Jamaica. 4.207 square miles. 

18 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

When this area is once properly reclaimed there will be little 
of it which can not be cultivated. The complete drainage of 
these Everglades is not only being seriously considered, but is 
actually in progress. The following on the "Drainage of the 
Everglades" is from a recent issue of Success, by J. E. Ingra- 
ham, one of the vice-presidents of the Florida East Coast Rail- 
road : 

"There are great agricultural possibilities in the Florida 
Everglades. Though they are yet merely an expansive waste of 
swamp and lake and jungle, I venture to predict that they will be 
the location of hundreds of fertile farms within ten years, and 
will by degrees develop into one of the most productive tracts 
of land in the world. The barrier to the utilization of the Ever- 
glades has been, of course, the water which covers the greater 
part of them to a depth of from one to six feet ; but it has been 
found entirely practicable to drain off the water. Work to this 
end has already been begun and is being pushed rapidly. When 
it is completed a tract of land one hundred and sixty miles long 
and sixty wide will have been opened to cultivation. The size of 
this region is not as important as the remarkable productivity of 
the soil. The latter is not only absolutely virgin, but has been 
fertilized by animal and vegetable life through many centuries. 
I am confident that its crops will lift Florida to a place among 
the leading agricultural states. 

"The project of draining the Everglades attracted the atten- 
tion of Henry B. Plant in the early nineties, but he was by no 
means sure that the scheme was feasible, so I, acting under his 
direction, undertook an expedition through the region. Despite 
its proximity to centers of population, it was then for the first 
time thoroughly explored by white men. Ours was virtually a 
voyage of discovery. We paddled our light boats on lakes and 
camped on islands that. I have good reason to believe, had never 
before been visited by any human beings but Seminole Indians, 
and by these but rarely. We underwent so many hardships that 
some of our party were compelled to turn back, but our efforts 
were not in vain, for we ascertained the important fact that the 
Everglades, along the whole 160 miles of the eastern side, are 

19 



THE E\'ERGLADES 

rimmed by a rock ledge. We furthermore learned that all of the 
lakes are several feet above sea level, and we decided that there 
was nothing whatever to prevent the water of the lakes from 
flowing into the ocean and leaving the land drained if vents could 
be made in this long ledge of rock. The chief question before 
us pertained to the practicability of cutting through the ledge in 
various places, and dredging out outlets into the Atlantic, which 
is not more than two or three miles away at numerous points. 

"Experiment proved that this work would present no great 
difficulties. It was merely a matter of a great deal of digging. 
Henry M. Flagler took up the project, and it is being carried out 
by his lieutenants. We are not only making artihcial outlets 
through the rock, but are also, by ditching and dredging, turning 
large bodies of water into rivers and creeks which flow to the 
ocean. The work has progressed far enough to enable me to 
predict confidently the opening in Florida, within a very few 
years, of a great tract of land of almost unprecedented fertility." 

When one considers what the Bermudas yield, with only 
twenty square miles of rocky land, the possibilities of this great 
Southern tropical peninsula seem almost limitless. The whole 
region is one of great interest, and although one of the first to be 
explored and partly settled it has remained dormant until lately. 
Settlement is difficult, but gradually obstacles are being over- 
come, and when competition in transportation facilities develops, 
the boom will be on in earnest. 

This region of perpetual summer is also the natural gateway to 
the West Indies, and the great peninsula of Florida, like a huge 
finger, directs the way to fertile regions beyond, awaiting Amer- 
ican capital and enterprise. 



20 



From La Hncioidn. wii. 



CHAPTER III. 



TREES AS AN AID TO DRAINAGE. 




LL trees, in fact all kinds of vegetation, trans- 
l)ire. Although a large part of the body of all 
plants is water (96 per cent in plants like the 
banana ) , a still larger quantity is absorbed by 
the roots and is again discharged by the leaves 
into the air. This passage of water into the 
air from the leaf surface of the plant is called 
transpiration. W'ater absorbed by the roots 
contains the nutrient substances of the soil. There is thus a 
current of water from soil to air through vegetation which is 
known, botanically, as the transpiration current. This keeps the 
plant turgid. When evaporation from the leaves is in excess of 
the supply from the roots, or in other words, when there is no 
transpiration current, due to an insufficiency of water, the tender 
parts of the plant wilt. The cells of the tender rootlets of 
plants not only absorb this watery solution but have a selective 
power in choosing from the many mineral substances contained 
in the moisture of the soil, the kinds and quantities needed for 
the vise of the plant. If even one necessary element is absent 
the plant dies of starvation. These substances are left in the 
plant for tlie manufacture of wood and fruit, while the water 
which has served as the vehicle of transmission evaporates from 
the leaf surface of the tree. The actual source of the power of 
this great transpiration force is still unknown. It is a mighty 
pump that will lift enormous quantities of water from the roots 
through tlie wood to the topmost branches of a tree two hundred 
and fifty feet in height. In fact, every tree is a natural pump 
with many valves. The power that does the pumping is simply 
another one of the great problems in plant life which remain 

21 



THE E\'ERGLADES 

to be solved. The leafage is a broad surface spread out to the 
sun and air. In addition there are numerous stomata (air- 
pores) which increase the porousness and promote evaporation 
of moisture from the surface. These air-pores or stomata open 
and close to suit the needs of the plant. The leaves and green 
twigs are then the special organs of transpiration. 

The water evaporated in the five months from June to No- 
vember from an oak standing perfectly free and apart and 
having about 700,000 leaves has been estimated at 111,225 kilo- 
grams. This is equivalent to about a (juarter of a million pounds 
of water. 

A clover plant has been found to give off in one day twice its 
weight of water. A crop of hay on one acre producing two tons 
has been found to use during its growing season more than six 
hundred tons or wagon loads of water. 

Storer in a chapter in his work on agriculture on "Trees as 
Pumping Engines" quotes that a single oak in Germany in about 
five months transpired 264,000 pounds of water, or al)out eight 
and one-third times the anioimt that fell in rain on the surface 
it occupied. Tie mentions another oak tree that transpired 4,400 
poimds of water in a single summer's day. 

Some trees transpire more than others, and, of course, in a 
climate of continuous summer, trans])iration throughout the yeai- 
is enormous. Rapidity of growth is determined by the amount 
of moisture available. The amount trans])ire(l (k'])ends upon 
the supply of water, the rate of growth and the condition of the 
atmosphere, (nven then a wet soil, a fast growing tree, such 
as a cedrela or cucalyt])us or any one of a hundred or more fast 
growing tropical trees, with a drv. windy atmosphere, and you 
will have a ])ump working (|uietly and constantly that would 
ri\-al a windmill. 

In a ])arliamentary paper relating to Xatal is the following 
statement: "Clumps of eucalyj'jtus planted in utidrained swamp 
lands at elevations up to 4,000 feet have 1)een known to com- 
pletely dry up the space within reach of their roots." 

T have heard it said that in India eucalyptus trees were 
l)lanted along an irrigation ditcli. These trees robbed the ditch 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

of so much water that they were cut down. The region around 
San Paulo delle Tre Fontane, it is claimed, was drained and rid 
of pestilential fevers by the planting of eucalyptus. Along the 
Mediterranean shore I have found the belief prevalent that 
eucalyptus plantations keep oE fever. Miiller speaks of the 
cajeput tree (Melaleuca leucodcndron) as the "anti-malarial tree." 
Many attributed this effect to emanations of oil from the leaves. 
It is a "poor lie that is devoid of all truth" and it is a poor popu- 
lar belief that is not based on some shadow of fact or reason. 

I think tl]e modern development of medical science proving 
the causes and manner of transmission of tropical fevers explains 
it all. 

In order to contract malaria or yellow fever one must be 
bitten by an infected moscjuito. The notion that these fevers are 
carried by miasmatic emanations from swamp lands no longer 
holds. 

To keep off fevers either one of two things is necessary — 
remove all mosquitoes that are infected or remove or segregate 
all people that can infect the mosquito. 

The mosquito does not travel far. He must have water to 
breed in. Undrained land furnishes the breeding place. In the 
Roman Campagna the water was held in pockets and the land 
was difficult to drain by ditches. Trees were planted. They 
drained the land, the mosquito was left without a breeding 
place and without him, or rather her, since the female does the 
mischief, the fever was not transmitted. 

The eucalyptus has been singled out as the great genus for 
this purpose, but there are other trees of quite as much value, 
which I shall mention later. 

Eucalyptus rostrata, the red gum, is a favorite because it 
grows on moist ground with a clay subsoil. It will grow on land 
subject to fresh water inundations for a considerable time. In 
Mauritius it resisted hurricanes better than other species. It 
yields a heavy wood, which is highly esteemed in Australia. 

Eucalyptus resiitifera. the red mahogany gum, has proved 
best for the tropics. It is not, however, such a rapid grower. It 
yields a good timber, but has an unfortunate common name. It 

23 



THE EX'ERGLADES 

should not be called mahogany, because it does not belong in tiic 
same class with this time-tried prince of timbers. It should not 
be called gum because the term gum to many minds carries with 
it little to recommend it. 

In Cuba I found a eucalypt growing witli magical rapidity. 
It was the fastest growing eucalypt I have ever seen in the 
tropics. An expert of the Department of Agriculture, Washing- 
ton, D. C, diagnosed it to be Eucalyptus crcbra, the narrow 
leaved iron-bark tree of New South Wales and Queensland. 
I am not sure that he is right, but if he is this species is the 
one to plant in Western Cuba. In our excitement over the euca- 
lyptus, some of the many species of which are good for certain 
special districts, such as Southern California and Mexico, we 
have overlooked other Australian and American trees which are 
quite their equals, if not in many instances by far their superiors. 

We have many species of the order Myrtaccac, to which the 
eucalyptus belongs, so similar to eucalyptus that the novice could 
not tell the difference. For instance, the rose apple or pome- 
rosa and many other species of the genus Eugenia and allied 
genera, which have large seeds, grow very rapidly, and yield 
fruit as well as wood. 

Any quick-growing tree such as the ccdrela or cigar-box 
cedar will pump just as much, if not more, water than the euca- 
lyptus. The Australian pine is a fine tree for swamp lands. It 
is storm fast, grows very quickly, in fact faster than any euca- 
lyptus in Florida, and yields a fine, hard wood. 

Melaleuca Icucodendron. the cajeput tree of India, which 
yields the cajeput oil of commerce, is, according to Baron \^ 
Mueller, a great tree for swamp lands. He thus speaks of it : 
"It can with great advantage be utilized for such areas for sub- 
duing malarial vapors in salt swamps where no eucalyptus will 
live." I have it growing successfully on the bay shore here in 
Florida. We have all noticed how the roots of trees will run to 
an old well and then form in great hair masses down its sides 
to the water below ; we have all noticed how the roots of quick 
growing trees such as the poplars and willows will go long dis- 
tances to a tile drain and fill it completely with hundreds of 

24 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

rootlets ; and we have all noticed how the roots of some trees 
will run out and under a pavement so persistently that they 
crack and ruin it. The rootlets are merely doing their part — 
hunting for moisture, so that the tree can hold up its head, and 
hunting for mineral food which is dilutely dissolved in the water 
which it drinks. When the earth fails to yield sufficient moisture 
and in consequence sufficient plant-food held in solution the 
tree begins to die at the top first — a condition called stagheaded- 
ness, which is the beginning of the end. In the selection of soils, 
look up and not down. The height of the timber is usually a 
good measure of the soil's depth and fertility. On an old home- 
stead in this region there was a well cut from the solid rock. 
By the side of this well a wild rubber grew. The well was long 
ago abandoned and is now almost fdled by its hose-like roots. 

In conclusion let me say that the greatest function of the for- 
est, aside from yielding materials useful to man, is soil better- 
ment. It holds the soil in place against the erosive action of 
wind and water, but what is more important, the roots penetrate 
to the deeper layers of the soil, absorb the mineral substances 
and then deposit them again on the surface in the form of 
detritus, which soon becomes humu-s. Thus the surface soil is 
being constantly fed, thus the mineral ingredients of the soil are 
conserved and thus the wornout fields and ruinate lands of the 
tropics may be rejuvenated and rendered virgin. This deposit 
on the surface gradually raises the level and thus helps also in 
the process of drainage. 



25 




.-atsg^'f^"^ 







.'vsVJ-T^**^'''*'" 



ox THE UKACH AT CAIM-: Fl.UklUA. (PHOTO UV HOMEK SAl XT-GALDKN S. ) 




COCO-I'AI.M GROVF. OK COCAL OX ONF. OF THF. KEYS. 
( I'lmni IIV Fl.dKIDA I'MOTOGRAPHIC CONCERN.) 



Frofu the Garden Magazine, Nofemher, igio. 

Copyright, 1910, Doubleday, Page & Co. 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE COCO PALM. 




T IS so much better to call this tree the "coco 
palm" than the "cocoanut palm tree." There 
seems also no reason for spelling coconut with 
a in it. The source of this word is probably 
not known, but when no other source is plaus- 
ible, ancient Greek or Latin is sought, and a 
possible origin is guessed at, for instance the 
Greek kokkus, a berry. As another instance 
the natives of the Bahamas are called "Conchs," apparently be- 
cause they are fond of the shellfish called conch, from the Latin 
concha, a shell. It more than likely comes from a very old 
English word similarly spelled, meaning a "beach thief," or 
"beachcomber." 

The use of an a in the word simply helps to confound it with 
cacao, coca, and a few other plant names with similar spelling. 
The Spanish call it coco, and the German kokos-palmc. The 
generic name is Cocos, the specific name niicifcra, and when 
Linnaeus called it nuciferous, or nut-bearing, he perpetuated 
in its name its most striking quality. The use of the word "per- 
petuated" is good, since Cocos niicifcra is one of the few plant 
names which have not been changed a dozen or more times by 
ardent botanists. 

From the standpoint of utility, the coco palm leads the pro- 
cession in the tree world. As to beauty, that depends altogether 
on the character of your art education. I have heard both the 
royal palm and coco palm likened to huge feather dusters set 
on end over the landscape. This much is certain — a coral strand 
without coco palms would look like Father Time without his 
whiskers. 



27 



THE EX'ERGLADES 

In spite of the fact that the fruits of the royal pahn are only 
used for pigfeecl, this tree is more stately and aristocratic than 
the coco palm. It is perfectly straight, smooth, and columnar 
and well fitted for avenues leading up to Southern mansions. 
The coco palm, on the other hand, is plebeian. It bends accom- 
modatingly at the start, and has pronounced ridges where the 
massive lea\es have fallen away, which give the monkey-like 
pickaninny a good toehold. 

It is a fitting shade to the hut of a fisherman, for with a 
long-handled sponge hook he can pull down at any time a green 
nut which yields a cool, sweet, fresh, invigorating drink from 
nature's own distillery. Strange to say, this liquid is under 
pressure and, although there is not the decided "pop" which is 
always looked for in the case of a soft drink, there is a good 
active "squirt" indicating that the water is fresh and the nut 
sound. Inside, under the shell, which in this stage is just begin- 
ning to harden, there is a layer of soft nutritious jelly. 

The white meat of the ripe nut is used for candy, feed for 
animals, and, when groimd very fine, makes a cream which is 
delicious on fruits, etc. I have seen chickens, goats, dogs, pigs, 
and pickaninnies all feeding in the same yard at the same time 
on the white meat of the coconut. 

The coco palm is a queer tree — it seems to love the winds 
and salt of the seashore ; yet some scientist has tried to prove 
that its home is inland on a high plateau in South America. 

It has been pictured in times past as a perfect adaptation to 
the seashore. What the date is to the desert, the coco palm is 
to the strand. The hard shell of the nut is filled with a rich oily 
meat which floats high. The germ is protected and well sup- 
plied with nutriment for the days of its youth. On the outside 
of the shell there is a pad of fiber which ]')rotccts it when it fall> 
to the hard coral strand. The nut will not break when it falls ; it 
bounds and rolls like a ball down the incline into the sea, and 
floats and floats and floats till washed on some muddy shore 
which the coral polvps, the waves, and the mangrove trees have 
been many a year in making. Then it is gradually covered with 
sand and seaweed by wind and wave. Soon the tree springs from 

28 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

one of the three eyes in the end of the nut. The leaves are at 
first simple, and in youth the tree needs shade, which it gets nat- 
uralh' from the bushes on the shore. Soon it throws out great 
compound leaves of woody texture, some of which are fully tif- 
t(*en feet in length. Think of leaves fifteen feet long! In a few 
}ears, seldom under five, it bears a bunch of nuts, followed by 
other bunches in all stages of growth. 

The>n the mangrove island is fit for human habitation, fit for 
the home of some smoky colored, semi-nude sea-islander, who 
from this palm can garner all the necessities and a few of the 
luxuries of life. With the fish in the sea by the shore, and the 
turtles that lie and lay on the beach, starvation is not possible. 
Alan's ultimate wants are shelter, food, and drink. The coco 
palm supplies them all, with more besides. 

The Negro who lives in the shade of this useful tree has also 
fortunately developed a thick skull-shell, covered with a mat of 
tow. And w^ell so, since the fall of a coconut from a sixty-foot 
palm is nigh like a ball from the cannon's mouth. A single 
fruit of the double coconut of the Seychelle Islands weighs 
from forty to fifty pounds. Our common coconut when green 
will weigh at least five pounds. Over in Brazil men wear buck- 
lers of wood to protect themselves from the fall of the balls of 
Brazil-nuts. These actually plant themselves when they hit the 
soft, moist earth of the jungle. 

Still there are scientists at work who have proved, to their 
own satisfaction at least, that the coconut does not float far, 
that it soon loses its vitality when soaked in salt water, that it 
rarely sprouts when washed upon the beach, and that it has been 
distributed completely round the globe mainly by the hand of 
man. 

The waves wash the tree half over, break over it with great 
fury and bang great booms against it in times of storm, but it 
lives on and bears on in spite of abuse. Dig it up carefully and 
pet it with fertilizer, and it will more than likely turn yellow and 
die. Cut ofT its tough fibrous roots to the stub, and cut ofi its 
leaves, then stick it in the ground as you would plant a fence- 
post, and it will very likely live. 

29 



THE EVERGLADES 

In Porto Rico the water of the green coconut is relished by 
everybody. It is ahnost a national beverage, and a wholesome 
germ-free beverage it is — absolutely free from chemical adulter- 
ation and ptomaine poisoning. All through the day and late at 
night in Porto Rican cities may be heard tlie welcome call of the 
coco-de-aqua vender. 

In some parts of the East the fruit stalks are cut while green 
and tender, and the stub is attached to a light bamboo trough. 
Several flower-stalks may be thus treated and several little 
troughs may be led to one spot where there is a receptacle in the 
form of a big gourd or calabash awaiting the liquid which oozes 
out and trickles down to form a cider or toddy. 

Could one imagine a state more seraphic to the minds of 
many men than a hut closely surrounded by coco plams with 
bamboo conduits leading this cidery juice slowly, but continu- 
ously, into a receptacle on the kitchen table? 

b'rom the outside of the nut comes the husk or coir which is 
used for cordage and woven into tough matting for church aisles, 
office floors, etc. 

The oil which is expressed from the copra, or dried meat of 
the nut, enters into butter, soap, etc. 

The hard shells are carved and used for utensils of various 
kinds. 

The trunk wood is poor and hard on tools. It is used, never- 
theless, because it is cheap and answers the purpose, although, 
of course, a fine full-bearing coco palm is never cut for its wood. 
It is called "porcupine wood" because it has hard bundles of 
tissue in it which, when cut on the slant, appear like spines in 
tlie wood. The heart is spongy, but the outer layer, although 
rough, is tough and durable. 

A coco palm usually bears a terrillc weight of fruit, antl bears 
it continuously, but if it fails the native hacks it or drives iron 
into it or cuts deep notches into the trunk, which at the same 
time facilitate climbing, and lo! it bears — bears because its veg- 
etative activity has been restrained, and, like every other crea- 
ture on earth, it strives all the more to lu-rpetuate its kind. 

Among the leaves around the stem there is a natural cloth, to 

30 



AND SUUTllERX FLORIDA 

be sure not woven with warp and woof, but of such a nature 
that primitive man could have easily taken the hint. 1 don't 
know whether this cloth is ever used for wearing apparel or 
not, certainly not in the majority of even remote regions where 
gunny sacks are plentiful. 

There are those who grow passionately fond of the coco 
palm, especially when grouped by the shimmering particolored 
sea of the tropics. There is nothing sorrowful about them ; in 
the breeze they never emit a whining tune as do the pines, but a 
lusty clattering and banging. I heard an old sailor once say that 
he wanted to be buried in the shajJe of a coco palm by the shore. 

But like all good things on earth it has its tormentors. In 
parts of the West Indies it has fallen a prey to a fungous blight. 
Strong efforts are l^eing used to check its spread, and close 
watch should be kept to prevent it from entering Florida from 
Cuba, since in south Florida there are many coco palms, and 
many acres of land where they can be successfully planted. 



31 




PICKIXG SAPODII.I 



O BY PKOF. JOHN C:?AIG.) 




A LIME TKKK UN KI.I.IOTT S KKV GKIIWING IN THE COK \L KOCK. 
(PHOTO BY PKOK. JOHN CKAIG. ) 



From The Garden Magacine, September, igio. 

Copyright, 1910, Doubleday, Page & Co. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE LIME AND SAPODILLA, COALMOXLY CALLED 
"SOURS AND DILLIES." 




ISIT a conch farmer on the Florida Keys and 
the conversation will soon drift to the condi- 
tion of his "sours and dillies." 

The "sours" or limes were planted long 
ago mainly for their acid juice which was 
cherished by seafaring folk to combat scurvy, 
while "dillies," the short for sapodillas, were 
grown because they have always been held 
in high esteem by the natives, both black and white, of the Flor- 
ida Keys and the Bahama Islands. 

The buccaneerish taint in my blood got the upper hand when 
I bought a farm on the Keys, well stocked with limes, sapodillas, 
and coco palms, and a sloop which I named The Dilly. Since thew 
my interest in sours and dillies has grown, in spite of devastating 
storms, trick}- commission men, and long droughts. 

These two fruits grow together on the Keys among lime 
rocks of coral origin, where soil is often so scarce that on some 
acres, which one could easily select without wandering far, a 
man would have to scrape with a spoon for a whole day to get 
a barrow load. The rocks stick up as though the bones of 
mother earth were dry and bare, without skin or flesh of any 
kind. 

In the crevices of the rock there is some soil, and from the 
porous rock itself the plant must derive nourishment. At any 
rate, the lime tree produces sour limes, and the sapodilla tree 
sweet sapodillas, in great abundance. 

If one plows this soil he must use dynamite, and all weeding 
is done with a machete or a sailor's sheathknife. 



ZZ 



THE E\'ERGLADES 

In a moist season the little lime, hardly more than a seedling, 
is planted in a rock crevice or pot-hole. If the ocean keeps its 
l)lace and the weeds are kept in check, the lime tree will thrive 
and in three years will blossom and fruit — a fruit with a deli- 
cious refreshing aroma which puts the lemon to shame. The 
lemon is a coarse, thick-skinned, rough, raggy and acrid prod- 
uct compared with the lime. School children in Boston eat 
limes pickled in salt-water, at recess. The lime is a naturally 
refined and delicate acid fruit. 

The lime is a spiny, semi-wild crop, although a spineless 
variety from Trinidad is being tried. It stands no frost and 
will not flourish if too carefully tended. No fertilizer except a 
little half-rotted seaweed, and no cultivation except a couple 
of weedings a year, are needed. Heavy crops of fruit are pro- 
duced almost every summer, often with a light winter crop, and 
the limes from the Keys are especially cherished because, unlike 
mainland limes, they will carry long distances without 
deterioration. 

The lime is thin-skinned, full of juice in proportion to rag, 
of a delicate inimitable aroma, and once a lime-convert the epi- 
cure forever after spurns the lemon. 

There is little trouble in getting them picked in spite of the 
mosquitoes and their needle-like thorns. 

The lime is in active demand because there is an unquench- 
able desire — the awful thirst which besets the American peoi^le 
in the summer time. Great pyramids of limes may be seen at 
almost every soda fountain where limeades are in vogue or at 
the club where the gin-rickey holds sway. A whole lime for a 
glass with the thin aromatic rind thrown in is the rule. For 
that reason big limes are not wanted, and then, limes are usually 
bought by the barrel and sold l)y the dozen. 

My crop last vear on aljout four acres of land amounted to 
two hundred and some barrels. A flour barrel is the standard 
and holds about one hundred and twenty-five dozen limes. They 
netted me on the average $3.50 a barrel. They j^robably re- 
tailed at twcntv cents a dozen, costing the consumer about 

34 



AND SOUTllERX FLORIDA 

twenty-five dollars a barrel — a fair instance of the abysmal 
gulf between the consumer and producer. 

Limejuice has other uses than assuaging thirst. In the form 
of citric acid it is extensively used in manufacturing establish- 
ments. 

A little lime juice put in the water in which meat is boiled 
renders it more tender and palatable. 

Added to desserts, other fruits, jams, etc., it brings out their 
peculiar flavors and removes flatness. 

It offsets hardness in water. 

With salt it will clean brass and remove stains from the 
hands. 

It improves and whitens boiled rice and sago. It is a sooth- 
ing application to irritations caused by insect bites. It is better 
than vinegar as a salad dressing. It makes a cleansing tooth- 
wash diluted with water. It is good for the liver, useful in 
fevers, and they say a little limejuice in the water you drink is 
sure death to the typhoid bacillus ! 

And so I manage my lime plantation — a kind of laisscc- 
fairc system — but it pays a good interest. A new-comer would 
hardly notice it in passing. A colored man called Parson Jones, 
otherwise known as the Sultan of Caesar's Creek, has an eye on 
it. Every month or so I meet him in town, but his good wife, 
who picks limes also, has not been away from home for three 
years. Three or four times a year when we want to bathe in 
the briny parti-colored waters of the Keys or seek plunder on 
beachcombing expeditions along the shores, I drop in to look 
over my plantation and pick some green coconuts for the re- 
freshing liquid which they contain. My only concern is in sum- 
mer, awaiting returns from shipments. Sometimes the sales are 
disappointing, especially in the region of New York if a ship 
has arrived with a cargo of "sours," each wrapped in brown 
I)aper, from the island of Santo Domingo. 

My sapodillas were planted because they yield a very sweet 
fruit and stand firm in the teeth of the gale. The trees are so 
dense and sturdy that they form a wind-shield and storm-break. 
Good dillies have a local sale of a penny each. Some are 

35 



THE EVERGLADES 

smooth, light brown, with a pink blush on one side, but many 
resemble a rusty-coat apple. The colored gentry will invest in 
this luxury even when grits are low in the larder. And the 
raccoons are so fond of them that ripe dillies on the trees are 
seldom found. 

But there is a future to the dilly beyond all this. The gum 
or milky juice of the tree is the basis of chewing-gum, and 
although the world at large may not be cognizant of this im- 
pending calamity, and although even the conservation commis- 
sion has not considered it, we are on the verge of a chewing- 
gum famine. The price of this gum. called chicle, has risen, the 
quantity given in a cake of gum has been reduced to the severest 
minimum, and adulteration has reached its maximum. Still the 
demand is beyond the supply. 

The man who plants limes, with sapodillas for a wind-break, 
is actually, but perhaps unwittingly and indirectly, furnishing 
important ingredients for two articles not destined to uplift 
mankind — the gin-rickey and chewing-gum. 

In addkion to yielding a sweet fruit and a valuable gum, the 
wood of the sapodilla tree is probably as near everlasting as 
wood can be, in fact it outlasts many metals. Lintels of zapote. 
or sapodilla wood, in the ruins of IMexico are still hard and 
sound, having endured many centuries, probably 3,000 years. 

In a few years, no doubt, there will be many chicle planta- 
tions, under the control of companies inducing the unwary to 
])art with their coin on the promise of great future returns, as 
in the case of rubber. 

Even now chicle figures in American stock reports, and 
American chicle is bought and sold in Wall Street by the side 
of stock of other great corporations. 



36 













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from The Garden Magazine, August, igio. 

Copyright, 1910, Doubkday, Page & Co. 



CHAPTER VL 




THE BANANA AND THE PAPAW. 

NE\'ER cease to marvel at the banana and 
the papaw. Statisticians who have predicted 
a famine from the increase of population 
without a corresponding increase in the pro- 
duction of breadstuffs have neglected one 
potent factor — the banana. 

The papaw^ or papaya is another succu- 
lent, quick-growing, prolific tropical fruit- 
producer, belonging in the same class of marvels with the 
banana, but is not related to it. 

The banana has been the cause of the formation of steam- 
ship lines to the tropics ; it has caused the building of railroads 
within the tropics ; it has figured conspicuously in Spanish- 
American politics, and even the dreaded Black Hand is known 
to many as "the Society of the Banana." We are now importing 
$12,000,000 worth of bananas annually. 

The banana is marvelous l)ecause of its prolific nature, yet 
it forms no seeds, and the great bunch of foodstuff when not 
used by man or other animals simply rots, and the stalk which 
produced it dies to give space to another to repeat the perform- 
ance. 

With me the banana is a favorite crop. I dig a deep hole 
in moist soil or muck. Into this hole I empty my waste basket 
containing old letters, newspapers, returned maimscripts, etc. ; 
also the kitchen barrel containing tin cans and other stuff >hat 
the chickens will not eat ; then I throw in sweepings, rakings, 
()\(\ fertilizer bags, old iron, useless wood, bottles, and trash of 
any and every kind. On top of this I put a good forkful of 
stable manure and then some sand or muck. Then the banana 
root, often no bigger than your two fists, dry and lifeless-look- 
ing, after having been kicked about in the sun for a few days, 

38 



AND SOUTHERX FLORIDA 

waiting for planting time, is stuck into the ground and covered 
with a few inches of dirt. 

In three months, if the weather is good, you may sit in the 
grateful shade of this big green-leaved plant. I almost called it 
a tree, because its stalk is as big as a man's leg and its foliage 
may be several feet above your head, but according to the defini- 
tions a tree must have a central z^'oody axis, and to the banana 
there is no woody texture ; it is all as soft as a cabbage and is 
usually completely consumed in a short time when left to 
chickens. 

Within a year a bunch of fruit is produced which a man 
can hardly carry — a bunch so big that it often bends the plant 
to the ground unless propped by forked sticks. As soon as the 
bunch and stalk are cut, up shoots another and another. A 
dozen or more suckers are at the same time produced so that 
more and more may be planted. What an active chemical labo- 
ratory this plant is to form so much leaf and stalk and fruit 
from soil and atmosphere in less than a year ! 

It is a sight seldom forgotten to see picturesque Indians in 
Central America working in banana plantations where the plants 
have met to form a forest-like canopy. In Mexico there are 
young coffee trees in the shade of these banana ])lants. I have 
seen the semi-nude Karif women of British Honduras meet the 
ship far from shore with their dugouts loaded to the gunwales 
with ])ananas. 

But the most marvelous kind of banana culture may be seen 
in the Bahamas, on the Island of Eleuthera. Here there are 
deep holes called "banana holes" some of which are fifty or 
sixty or more feet in depth. At the bottom of these holes is 
moist rich earth. They are just like deep dry wells. A banana 
root is planted in a basket of soil, which is lowered with a rope 
to the bottom. The root sprouts and the stem shoots up like 
magic till it reaches the top of the hole. Then the foliage spreads 
out in the sunshine like flowers in a vase. There it grows and 
forms its bunch protected from the wind in the cool moist re- 
cesses of the hole. The bunch is formed at the surface of the 
ground, so that the enterprising native has but to pull it over 

39 



THE EVERGLADES 

with boat or sponge hook, sever it from the stalk with his ma- 
chete, and walk proudly home with a week's provender fur 
himself and family on his head — a fitting illustration of man's 
mastery over nature. 

Little wonder that the native of the tropics is a lover of 
leisure; little wonder that he rests content in his palm-thatched 
hut amid his beloved bananas. 

A good papaw will bear a hundred or more melon-like fruits, 
a fruit to the axil of each leaf, ripe at the bottom and in all 
stages of development up to the bloom. The staminate and pis- 
tillate flowers are usually on separate plants, and the fruit varies 
a great deal in quality. 

The fruit contains a large (|uantity of black, peppery seeds 
which may be removed cii masse, as in the case of the canta- 
loup. A good papaw, cold and treated with sugar and lime- 
juice, is relished by many people on a par with a muskmelon. The 
seeds are usually scattered in the midst of rubbisli during the 
rainy season. As soon as the plants begin to bloom, all but one 
or two staminate plants are destroyed. In the course of a few 
months one may begin to pick papaws every day or so. 

Of course some people have to learn to like them, but one 
lady that I know^, of good habits, will steal this fruit when buy- 
ing and begging fail. She has for the papaw the same irresisti- 
ble longing that the negro has for the watermelon. 

Next in wonder to the prolific nature of this fruit is the 
marvelous fact that it contains a natural food-digester, a fer- 
ment now famous the world over as a medicine. Under various 
patent names it enters into the lists of many drug firms. By 
means of it men have already accumidatcd fortunes — not the 
producer, but the manufacturer and ])C(ldler who invent ap- 
pealing names and have them j^atented. 

T have before me a sample bottle containing one hundred 
pills for twenty-five cents. Tt is marked "Physician's sample. 
Our own prejiaration of the digestive juice of Corico papaya 
with willow charcoal." Tt is also marked a sure cure for dys- 
pepsia or indigestion. T have often wondered where all this 
juice comes from. I have traveled in many parts of the tropics, 

40 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

but have never seen or heard of anybody collecting it, and the 
plant will not grow north of the frost line. 

How fortunate the dweller in the tropics ! H his meat is 
tough he can wrap it in papaw leaves over night and it will be 
tender in the morning. If his meal has disagreed with him, 
he can step into his back yard and pick and eat a papaw for 
dessert. 

Both bananas and papaws, however, are picked when full, 
but still green. This must be done to save them from the rats 
and birds. The tropical planter has bananas to roast and ba- 
nanas to fry, sweet bananas and acid bananas, big bananas and 
little bananas, yellow bananas and red bananas — in fact, varie- 
ties galore. 

If his bananas are slow to ripen, he can hurry the process 
by putting the bunch in a barrel and filling the barrel with warm 
air and smoke. This is easily done by turning the barrel upside 
down, hanging the bunch to a nail in the bottom which is now 
the top, and building a small fire in the hole in the earth under it. 

In a native school in India I have been told the pupils are fed 
almost exclusively on bananas. Bananas must be had at all 
times in proper condition. So they have a trench in the earth 
arranged in such a way that they can fill it with bananas, warm 
air, and smoke at any time and thus hasten the process of 
ripening. 

The banana has been in a way the emancipator of the trop- 
ics. In many instances it has led the native out of thraldom. 
In many places from which bananas are not shipped he must 
work in the fields at a small recompense. At banana ports he 
can usually receive a cash payment for every full bunch. With 
bananas to eat and bananas to sell, the copper-colored native 
can rest in his home-made hammock, thump his home-made 
guitar, and smoke his home-made cigar with only one worry, 
and that is that he might at any time be forced to serve in the 
army of either the dc facto or dc jure government, for the 
cause of liberty. Even so he knows that the folks at home can 
live on the bananas and papaws and other fruits and vegetabJes 
growing in a semi- wild state around his bungalow. 

41 



From the Everglade Magazine. 



CHAPTER Vll. 



WHAT WILL GROW IN THE EVER(;LADES. 




O MANY plants will grow in the Everglades 
when drainage is complete that a book and not 
one or two articles would have to be written 
to cover the subject and do it justice. 1 he 
growing of things is, of course, the purpose of 
all reclamation, and upon this alone depends 
the future value of the land. This Evcnjlade 
land zvhcii drained, ozving to its favorable 
location, zvill produce a greater variety of crops than a)iy other 
land in the United States of .Imcriea. We know of many things 
which have been successfully grown on the edge of the Ever- 
glades already, but think of the hundreds of useful plants now 
growing in other parts of the world which have yet to be intro- 
duced and tested ! 

Let me say at the start that this Everglade drainage question 
is no question at all ; it is a question only in the minds of doubt- 
ing Thomases, who are prejudiced, who arc ignorant or who are 
born knockers and who belittle every jiroject in which they have 
no hand and out of which they' can make no rake-ofif. We need 
not go to Europe for examples of successful works of a similar 
nature. The Dutch in fact would smile at such a project. Thev 
are making farm lands out of such places as Riscavne Rav. They 
reclaim places below the level of the sea. Thev pump the water 
out. Look over the great irrigation projects of our West, or 
better still the banked lands of the Mississippi \^allev where huge 
and co.stly levees hold our mightiest river in check. The over- 
flow of Okeechobee is insigm'ficant compared with the floodwatcrs 
of the great river which drains a third of this whole countrv. 
The first product for oiu- consideration on Everglade soils 

42 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

should be forage. Few countries can be highly and wholly suc- 
cessful in an agricultural way without being able to raise suffi- 
cient food for farm animals of all kinds. Aside from the ex- 
pense of feeding these animals on hay and grain brought from 
a distance, they are necessary for the maintenance of soil fer- 
tility and the conversion of roughage into manure, which is an 
expensive and to some extent an imported article. Enough 
vegetables are wasted to feed many pigs. The fertilizer bill 
is the main item of expense. 

In the West alfalfa means corn, alfalfa and corn mean hogs 
and cattle and horses ; these in turn mean fertility, money, pros- 
perity and happiness. 

There seems to me to be only one great work in this world; 
all other aims are subsidiary to it; it is the production of happy 
and prosperous homes. Every man who honestly works to that 
end is a benefactor to mankind. The men who reclaim waste 
land, the men who introduce valuable plants from foreign lands, 
the men who by selection improve varieties and increase pro- 
ductiveness, the men who devise means for combating plant 
diseases, in fact the men who in any way increase the produc- 
tivity of the soil in proportion to the labor expended thereon 
are doing a great work for all time. They may be long forgot- 
ten, but the efifects of their labors will roll down the ages for 
all time to come. All other movements are insignificant com- 
pared with the one great movement of producing the largest 
amount of food and shelter for our people with the minimum 
amount of labor outlay. 

In the matter of forage for animal feed, velvet beans, cow- 
peas, beggarweed and grasses and other legumes are already 
common. The Indians have successfully grown corn for many 
years on islands in the Everglades, and the green corn dance 
has always been to them an important event. In places in the 
Everglades where vegetables have been recently grown there 
are oats waist high with good heavy heads, having sprung from 
seed in the manure used for fertilizer or from oats, accidentally 
scattered by the horses while eating their mess. There is no 
stronger hay than oats cured in the milk, and in the land where 

43 



THE E\'ERGLADES 

I was bred farmers all said that animals fed on fodder of this 
kind needed no grain. And why should oats not thrive? The 
winter climate of Florida is not unlike the summer climate of 
Xorthcrn regions where oats are abundantly produced. 

The soil has never been inoculated with the bacteroid of red 
clover, yet in places red clover may be seen in full flower, hav- 
ing sprung from the seed from baled hay. This same baled hay 
brings in many weeds from the North, and the Canada thistle 
and other noxious weeds may be already seen in the vegetable 
patches on the Glades. 




STATE CAX.\L I.\ THE EVKRGLADES, FOR DKAl.XAGK, IKKIGATION AND 
TRANSPORTATION. 



Remove the water from the Glades, plant forage crops, keep 
animals, convert all roughage and waste products into manure 
and the agricultural future of this whole region will be assured 
\(>r all time to come. Farming seldom succeeds without manure, 
Work and sense. The maintenance oi soil fertility and the con- 

44 



AXD SOUTHER X FLORIDA 

trol of plant diseases are the two main agricultural problems 
throughout the world. 

It does not make any difference where you live, says Glean- 
ings in Bcc Culture, alfalfa can be made to grow all the wa\' 
from Maine to Florida. Here are the directions boiled down 
from the Ohio Fanner, written by Willis O. Wing, the great 
authority on the subject of alfalfa : 

"Please do not make a mystery of alfalfa-growing any 
longer. It is such a simple matter that one can write all the 
rules needed in small space. Here they are : Drain the water 
out; let the air into the soil; fill the land with lime if nature did 
not do it; get humus into it — stable manure or some vegetable 
matter to rot and promote the life of bacteria there. Put in 
plenty of phosphorus. Sow good seed, with a little inoculated 
soil. Lime brings afalfa. Alfalfa brings corn. Corn brings 
money, homes, pianos and education for farm boys." 

As to the production of vegetables nothing need be said, 
since it is hard to name a common garden variety which will not 
thrive on the glades. 

As to the production of rice, sugarcane and tobacco the pros- 
pects are not so bright for the small farmer. They will no 
doubt all grow well in the Everglades region. In the case of 
rice considerable capital is necessary in order to compete with 
Texas and Louisiana, where machinery has materially lessened 
the cost of production. There is a large rice eating population 
throughout the world, and although the price may be low the 
demand is unlimited. 

The development of sugar estates requires much capital, but 
the system of sugar production may change. Experiments 
along this line are now in progress in Cuba. The plan is to shred 
the cane, drying it and baling it with the sugar in it. In this 
form it is shipped to northern refineries. Thus handled they are 
able to get more sugar out of it and the bagasse which is left 
is fit for the manufacture of a coarse grade of paper. If this 
new system proves successful one farmer or at most half a 
dozen farmers could afford the necessary machinery and raise 

45 



THE EVERGLADES 

cane profitably even if there is not a big sugar factory in the 
vicinity. 

Tobacco will no doubt grow in the Everglades, but I have 
never seen it tried to any extent. It is quite possible that it 
might be successful and yield a leaf of superior quality or 
something out of the ordinary like the Perique of Louisiana. 

Cotton may also prove a valuable crop. The climate surely 
suits it and I have seen it growing elsewhere on soils of a sim- 
ilar nature. 

Bananas may be successfully grown. The Cavendish vari- 
ety seems best suited for the purpose. There need never be 
starvation in a region where bananas will grow. It is certainly 
one of the most wonderful food producers of the world. It has 
been grown successfully and of delicious flavor on the edge of 
the glades for years. It continually i)roduces food from the 
same root and after the bunch is cut the chickens will completely 
consume the succulent stem and leaves. 

The Everglades will grow many of the vegetables and forage 
crops of the North in midwinter, and in addition a long list of 
tropical trees, fruits and vegetables which cannot be grown else- 
where in our country, some of which are well known, but many 
kinds have yet to be tested. In another article I will mention 
some of the most promising of these, since in addition to food 
many of these tropical plants yield medicines, gums, perfumes, 
dyes, tanning materials, cabinet woods, etc., of more or less 
value to mankind. 

All that ])art of Morida south of Et. Lauderdale is tropical 
and has a tropical flora. It is the only part of the United States 
where the mango, avocado, sapodilla, anonas, etc., thrive and 
although many of these tropical fruits ripen in the summer time, 
they may be preserved no doubt into midwinter by cold storage. 

The territory toward Cape Sable (Lower Glades) is still 
a wild and unreclaimed region. Its development has just begun, 
although its possibilities may be unlimited. The whole country 
needs people and capital, coupled with active enterprise. The 
tide is moving Southward and it is human nature to follow the 
crowd. Some will not stay and some will not succeed. Home- 

46 



Ax\D SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

sickness has killed more sokliers than bullets. Some people can- 
not cut loose from old associations and are not fitted for the 
life of pioneers. Others love it and are stimulated and improved 
by it. Only a certain percentage can succeed at agriculture, 
anyway, anywhere, since although it is the most important, it is 
at the same time the most intricate of all professions. One must 
also have foresight and business ability to fight against soulless 
transportation companies and tricky middlemen, if one cannot 
prosper in agriculture in Southern Florida, there is little hope 
elsewhere in this line. 

The newcomer cannot freeze to death, and unless hampered 
by illness and dire misfortune he cannot starve, because wild in 
the woods is comptie or coontie, a plant which yields a starch 
equal in quality to sago. This still serves people in remote dis- 
tricts and was at one time the mainstay of the settler. The 
waters teem with fish, and poultry thrives. 

Although in the beginning there may be isolation and dis- 
comfiture, the man who works can make a living and a home 
such as cannot be made elsewhere in the United States in the 
same length of time and with the same amount of capital. 

One thing is certain, if one is in search of a tropical climate 
and a place to grow tropical crops, he will settle in Southern 
Florida or go out of the United States, and if he goes out of 
the United States he will have to face conditions and people with 
which he is not familiar, and to which he can never become 
wholly reconciled and there will always lurk in him a desire 
to return to his country and his kind. 



47 



Fro)ii the Everglade Mayazine. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



VALUABLE TREES FOR THE EVERGLADES. 




N THE following article I shall mention a 
few trees specially worthy of cultivation antl 
certain to succeed on Everglade soil when 
drainage has sufficiently progressed to lower 
the water table three or four feet below the 
surface level. Some of these trees will stand 
submergence for a short time. Even grape- 
fruit or pomelo will stand submergence in 
two or three feet of water for a period of a couple of weeks 
without apparent injury. 

The following opinions are based entirely on my own expe- 
riences and observations. These are based on ten years of ex- 
perience in the tropics, especially in Southern Florida, and fif- 
teen years of experience as a forester. 

IJamboo (Bainbos vulgaris) is very abundant along mucky 
water courses in the West Indies, where it forms stately groves 
or thickets. Although there is not a fortune in growing bam- 
boo it is highly ornamental and the poles are very useful on the 
farm. It is sure to become a great favorite for Everglade plant- 
ing. The Government is now experimenting, and in a short 
time we may be able to select varieties especially fitted for fish 
poles, furniture, etc. Bamboo throws a dense shade and is fine 
as a shelter and forage for poultry. 

Of the i)alm family the royal ]xdm ( Roysfonca rci/ia) and 
the coco palm (Cocas niicifiva) arc of first importance. The 
royal palm is native to Southern Florida. It loves a moist, 
mucky soil. It is a majestic tree for avenue or roadside plant- 
ing. Its berries for j)igfce<l are ecjual to corn. 

Although the coco palm is a lover of the seashore, it will 

4R 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

grow on moist soil several miles inland. Just how far it is diffi- 
cult to say, but I have seen it growing in the West Indies ten 
miles from the coast. This tree and its many products are too 
well known to need description. It is sufficient to say that it 
is considered by many authorities to be, on the whole, the most 
useful member of the plant world. A home in the tropics, at 
least near the seashore, seems incomplete without it. Many 
nuts were planted years ago on our sandbeaches, and although 
many did sprout and grow, thousands were lost because the 
young, tender leaves of the germinating nut were devoured by 
rabbits. 

Australia pine or beef wood (Casuarina cqiiisctifolia) is 
second to none as a quick hardwood producer in mucky soil or 
in saline land along the coast. In my opinion it is superior to 
any eucalypt that I knozv of for the production of hardivood 
lumber. 

Very few of the eucalypts produce first-class sawlogs in a 
short length of time. The eucalypt is not a sawlog proposition. 
I am upheld in this statement by Bulletin No. 61, Agricultural 
Experiment station, Tucson. Arizona : "It is not very likely that 
eucalyptus culture will ever prove a success as a saivlog propo- 
sition in any part of Arizona." I think I can safely say the same 
for this part of Florida. It is a pole, sleeper and fuel proposi- 
tion and a California proposition. There is no reason why we 
should ever concern ourselves about fuel anyway. There is no 
danger of freezing to death in this part of Florida. The limbage 
alone will be sufficient ; there will always be a lot of waste lum- 
ber, and then the coal supply of the Eastern United States is 
by no means exhausted. Plant for fine timber or other valu- 
able products. The fuel question will take care of itself in the 
tropics. 

We have several native trees belonging to the same family 
as the eucalyptus, and they are apparently quite as good. The 
rose-apple or pomerosa belongs to this family and is a magical 
fuel wood producer on the edge of streams in Cuba. It looks 
just like a eucalypt and yields an abundance of edible fruits. 
This tree would succeed on Everglade muck. I am growing 

49 



THE EVERGLADES 

another tree similar to the eucalyptus on muck soil. It is the 
cajeput of India. It is a beautiful tree, of very quick growth and 
yields the cajeput oil of commerce. This oil is used in India 
for rheumatism and I believe is the basis of some massage 
creams and hair oils. 

My choice of all the softwood trees, which produce tine 
timber, are easily propagated from cuttings, free from disease, 
and grow with great rapidity, is three or four species of the 
genus Ccdrcla — the commonest of which is Ccdrcla odorata or 
Cuban cigar-box wood. The wood of this tree is worth- more 
than mahogany ; in fact, much of the so-called mahogany in the 
market belongs to this genus and is not true mahogany. 

In the spring of the year stick a cutting, twelve inches long, 
of Ccdrela odorata, Cuban cedar, Ccdrcla tooiia, the red cedar of 
Australia, or Ccdrcla Brasiliciisis, the acajou of Brazil, in moist 
muck land and in six weeks it will have shoots on it six feet high. 
I have specimens growing at the rate of more than one foot a 
month. The trees resemble walnut trees and lead as softwood 
timber producers for tropical regions. 

JVerc I engaged tomorrozv to plant a tract of land i)i trees 
for lumber on the Everglades I zvould plant .iustralian pine for 
hardwood and Cuban cedar for softwood. 

For quick growing, valuable shade trees I would like to 
recommend the Spanish laurel (ficus iiitida ) ami the Sacred 
Bo tree of India (Ficus rcligiosa). The wood of these trees 
is no good but they afiford a fine shade, are very decorative and 
grow very quickly. 

I think all the trees mentioned above will hold up in bad 
winds. On mucky soil one must select trees that do not IjIow 
over easily. That is a fault of the eucalyptus in this region. 
It i)robal)ly would not happen if the tree could get deep rootage. 

Another good shade tree for mucky soil is Thcspcsia popul- 
nca, called in Cuba the IHorida mahoc (nuijagua dc ftonda), 
although not a native of Florida. It bears a beautiful flower 
and is easily reproduced from cuttings. A brother to this tree, 
called "maga" in Porto Rico, is one of the most beautiful trees 

50 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

I have ever seen. I have not been able to get seeds or cuttings 
for Florida, but 1 hope to some day. 

Speaking of fuel wood above, I think we have the best fuel 
wood producer in the world. It is the Florida button wood 
(Conocarpus erccta). This tree grows on the seashore. The 
wood gives out a great deal of heat and produces very little 
smoke. It will nozv bring tzvice the price of any other fuel zvood 
in Key I Vest or Nassau. 

The sapodilla is a great favorite of mine. It grows espe- 
cially in the hammock, but will, I think, grow well anywhere 
in the glades when drainage is complete. It is stormfast and 
tough, it produces a wood that is everlasting, a fruit that is good 
and salable locally, and a gum called chicle, which is in great de- 
mand in the manufacture of chewing gum. In fact, we are on 
the verge of a chewing gum famine, owing to the scarcity of 
this gum. 

The mastic is a fine native hardwood. 

Princewood is also a good wood. Its bark is a splendid 
tonic, containing quinine or a similar drug. It is worth while to 
plant a tree or two of this just to have a fine, unadulterated 
tonic near at hand. 

In addition we have mahogany and Jamaica dogwood, well 
known native woods of excellent quality and in demand locally. 
Mahogany is ordinarily regarded as the "king of all hard- 
woods." I have sent samples of our mahogany, here called ma- 
deira, to England and France and experts there pronounced 
it of first quality for the manufacture of solid furniture. This 
grows wild on islands just south of the Everglades. 

We have other woods of great value too numerous to men- 
tion in one article. In addition to the plants I have already 
mentioned, there are. of course, many tropical fruit trees and 
many ornamental shrubs and vines. 



51 



From the Everglade Magazine. 



CHAPTER IX. 
SOME COMMON FLORIDA PLANTS. 




HA\'E often been asked to recommend 
plants which will make good hedges for South 
Florida. For this purpose 1 know nothing 
better than Carissa or Natal Plum. There 
are supposed to be two species of Carissa in 
I'lorida — grandiflora and artluina, but 1 can 
see no difference. Tiiis bush is always a rich 
dark green. It has vicious thorns ; it bears a sweet scented 
white flower and red plum-like fruit. It is easily repro- 
duced by layering and may be grown from seed. It is 
best always to propagate from a heavy bearing plant, since 
it seems that all strains are not the same in this respect. When 
cooked the fruit makes a sauce hardly distinguishable from 
cranberry. The sauce is improved by the addition of a few 
chopped raisins. This plant bears throughout the year, and the 
sauce is welcome at almost every meal. I believe this fruit 
can be successfully dried or evajjorated, as are dates, figs, 
raisins, prunes, etc. The home of this bush is South Africa, 
where it is effectively used for hedges. It seems to be perfectly 
adapted to Florida conditions. 

Another good hedge plant is the lime. This }-iel(ls the well- 
known "sour" of commerce wliicli will in time no doubt replace 
the lemon. I-'or good limes there is a growing demand and after 
one has become accustomed to using them he ever after spurns 
the lemon. Xo home in the tropics is coni|)]ete without a few 
lime trees. 

The same may be said of the guava, sometimes referred to 
as the "apple of Florida." The guava grows with little care, 

52 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

fruits heavily and is perhaps the greatest of all jelly fruits. The 
ripe fruit has a smell which is at first detested by the newcomer, 
quite in contrast to the aromatic lime, but one usually learns 
to relish it, after a time, out of hand. Guava jelly brings many 
dollars to Florida and I know several small jelly factory owners 
who ship their products to every State in the Union and to 
England as well. 

The Surinam cherry is a handsome bush. It yields an 
abundance of rich red cherries which are relished on a par with 
northern cherries by many people. It is of course in no way 
related to the true cherry of the North, and it has a slight resin- 
ous flavor, but it is a good substitute. 

Around every home there should be many pigeon pea bushes. 
This is the cajan bush of India and Africa, now common 
throughout the tropics of the world. The peas are worth fif- 
teen cents a quart. They make the famous pigeon pea or Congo 
pea soup. The negroes cook them green. They shade the 
ground, improve the soil, keep down weeds and deposit a rich 
leaf-mold over the surface of the ground. I plant them in my 
grove. Chickens, quail and doves are fond of the peas and 
they flourish in the shade, scratching for bugs and the peas which 
•fall. 

The Castor bean grows well in Florida and ought to be an 
extensive industry. There is good demand for the oil, and the 
pumice from the seeds is a fine fertilizer. 

All of the above have been introduced into this State but 
are now perfectly at home here. xVmong our native plants we 
have many yet to try and to improve under careful cultivation. 

Some time ago my attention was attracted to a little pea- 
like plant growing by the roadside. It reminded me of the 
white clover of the North and like the famous camomile grows 
the faster the more it is trod upon. I am testing it and think 
it will make a fine lawn plant. In looking up its name I find it 
Itelongs to the Indigo genus. Indigofera mineata, and this re- 
minds me of the fact that indigo was once extensively grown 
in Florida before the days of aniline dyes and synthetic chemists. 

In patches out in the Everglades there are many pond-ap- 

53 



THE EVERGLADES 

nle?. The pond-apple is the Florida representative of the great 
Anona family which includes many delicious fruits. Some peo- 
ple eat the pond-apple and 1 think 1 have seen it on sale in Mex- 
ican markets. The wood of the pond-apple is almost as light as 
cork, and may be used in place of cork for net floats, etc. 

The pond-apple may prove a good stock on which to bud 
the famous Cherimolia. Rollinia, Uvaria and other choice, but 
little known, fruits of this order. 

Nothing is commoner on islands in the Everglades than the 
Coco-plum. This is a beautiful small tree yielding a fruit which 
makes a hne preserve. There is great variation in the quality 
of the fruit. In many cases it is mostly one big seed but I have 
seen some that were large and meaty and well worthy of cul- 
tivation and improvement. It is not very distantly related to the 
peach, apricot, etc., being of the same family, and might be use- 
ful as a hardy stock for budding something of greater merit. 

We have a wild West Indian cherry fruiting in our ham- 
mocks which might be useful also as a stock for budding 
purposes. 

I have used above the word "hammock," the term applied in 
South Florida to a dense hardwood jungle. This is not the same 
word as "hummock," or the same as "hammock," a swinging 
bed, but is probably a word of local Indian origin, spelled in 
early times "hamak." 

1 will conclude this chapter with a few words in reference 
to the humble coontie or comptie, a little plant which grows 
wild everywhere in the pine woods, avoiding the wet places. 
The root of this plant kept the early settlers supplied with starch 
for bread, as well as the Indians l)efore them. It was the main 
industry of this country in the early days. The starch from tiie 
root is still in demand. It is a sago. From it easily digested 
and nutritious biscuits can be made. In the wild state the plant 
contains prussic acid and is poisonous and for that reason is 
never molested except by man and the comptie fly, a beautiful 
insect which is immune to its deadly juice. Fire does not in- 
jure it, in fact helps to scatter the seeds, since the heat opens the 
cone-like head which holds them. 

54 



AND SOUTUERX Fi^ORIDA 

Cassava also grows like a weed in Florida. From its root 
a btarch is made. If further treated this starch becomes the 
tapioca of commerce. 

With its sunshine and its moisture, with its host of useful 
native and introduced plants, with its black mucky soils and 
light sandy soils, with its vast beds of phosphate holding great 
stores of the most precious of all plant foods, phosphorus, with 
its long coast line and canals and harbors to come, it seems to 
me that all this great State lacks is people with capital and 
energy to furnish fun and feed for millions, 



55 



From the Everglade Magazine. 



CHAPTER X. 



VINES FOR EVERGLADE I'LAXTIXG. 




X THE development of a home in a tropical 
cuuntry there is no group of plants which 
give as much gratification as do the vines. 
The)- grow quickly, they afford shade in a 
short time, they occupy but small space, in 
fact space which would otherwise not be util- 
ized, and in addition many vines yield prod- 
ucts which are quite equal in value to other 
crops of forest and field. 

They are in a peculiar way attractive, and to many people 
far more attractive than bushes and trees. 

They gracefully cover unsightl}- places and clamber into 
nooks and corners, covering with a rich green fences and out- 
buildings and at times are a delight beyond expression when 
in the acme of their bloom. A poultry wire fence covered with 
vine is usually a more effective screen than a solid board fence 
and although the effect of complete seclusion is secured the air 
can filter through. 

In the old world, where s]-)ace is scarce, even fruit trees, 
such as figs, peaches, apples, lemons, etc., are grown on trel- 
lises, in this case the fruit is larj^cr, brighter in coK^- anrl of 
better flavor because of the abundance of light and free circula- 
tion of air which this form of culture j^rovidcs. I liave ju>t 
received a postcard from a friend summering on the .Austrian 
side of the Lake of Garda. showing lemons growing on trel- 
lises. The writer says: "1 am sending this to vou because 1 
doubt if anywhere except here on the Lake of Garda lemons are 
trained against walls between pillars in this way. There is a 
lattice overhead and I suppose they can cover them in winter 
if necessary." 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

Suppose one owns only a small lot and builds in such a way 
that he has a central court or patio and suppose over this patio 
he builds a lattice and on this lattice he trains grapefruit or lime 
or orange, he would have an attraction that would afford him- 
self and his family comfort, but above all it would be a sight 
which woukl hold a Northern visitor spellbound. 

I know a man who owns a little one-story wooden house, 
covered with paper for a roof. This was hot in summer and 
he could not afford tiles or shingles. He built over it one foot 
or more from the roof a light lattice frame. He planted a quick- 
growing vine and now his house is actually roofed with a mantle 
of green. It acts like the double roofs so common in the South- 
west. Between his house and the sun there is not only this roof 
of green but a current of air. It furnishes a nesting place for 
the birds and cuts out the bare, cheap look of a paper roof. 

It would be impossible in so short a space to treat of all the 
vines which grow in South Florida, because they are legion, but 
some, in addition to being l)eautiful in leafage and flower, bear 
fruits of more or less value. 

Probably few visitors to Florida realize that the vanilla vine 
is native, that it grows wild in our hammocks. It is slightly 
different from the vanilla of Mexico and South Am.erica and is 
almost leafless. It hangs pendant from branches like long 
slender green snakes. It was for a long time considered by 
botanists of the same species as the Mexican. In Small's Botany 
of the Southeastern United States it is called J'aiiilla phinifoUa. 
"In forests, peninsular Florida and tropical America, also wide- 
ly cultivated." It is an orchid and might some day be profit- 
ably grown for the aromatic pods it yields. 

The yam is a quick growing vine. Yams form one of the 
staple foods of many tropical peoples, especially in the East. 
The yam vine forms a root similar to a sweet potato but many 
times as large. I have seen a party of ten at dinner served with 
one-half a yam. There are many kinds of yams. They grow 
like mad in rich mucky soil and in addition to the shade afforded 
yield a food almost equal to a white potato. 

57 



THE EX'ERGLADES 

That strange fruit called the ceriman is really a vine. In its 
native state it grows high into the trees. It has big leaves with 
natural holes in them and produces a flower something like a 
big calla lily and a fruit the shape of an ear of corn. Its scien- 
tihc name is Monstcra dcliciosa. 

The passion vine is too well known to need description. It 
yields a fruit called the granidilla in tropical America. 

The black pepper of commerce is a vine. Also rattan is a 
climbing palm and who knows but that both of these may grow 
in South Florida? 

Some time ago over in the Bahamas I saw a man planting 
vines in the hammock for rubber. Several vines yield rubber 
of commercial importance. We have one native rubber vine, 
Rhabdadenia hi flora (same as Echitcs paludosa), and the one 
which has been planted in the West Indies for rubber is Cryp- 
to stcgio grandiflora. 

Pcreskia aculcata, the lemon vine — the Barbadoes' goose- 
berry — has already grown to be a favorite in South Florida. 
It belongs to the cactus family and produces an edible fruit. 

Think of the gourds which yield sucli useful utensils. The 
chayote, a vegetable vine from Mexico, has fruited in Florida, 
but has never become popular. 

Then there is the grape, some variety of which will no doubt 
do well here. One good scuppernong will cover an arbor a 
(juarter of an acre in extent in the course of time. The Key 
grape is already common and wild grapes are abundant. 

There are many morning glory vines in Florida. They are 
usually treated as weeds. One of our morning glory vines 
yields jalap, a famous medicine. Many are highly ornamental 
and furnish in addition honey for bees when other bee food is 
scarce. 

The velvet l)can and other vines of the family grow very 
rapidly and yield an abundance of beans and fodder. 

We have one little vine — very delicate — holding tight to 
stone walls, soon covering the stone completely with a growth 
of dark green. It is Ficus rcpcns. I heard a man once say that 
he wanted a stone house just to be able to have this vine 

58 



AND SOUTiriERN FLORIDA 

on it. Strange to say it is a Ficus, the same genus to which the 
fig, the common rubber trees and the great banyans of India 
belong. 

And then there is a host of highly ornamental vines that 
one must learn to know before appreciation is possible — such 
as the night-blooming cereus, bignonias, christmas vine, jas- 
mines, solanums, chalice flower, clematis, woodbine, Virginia 
creeper, roses, allamanda, antigonon, bougainvillea, tacomas. etc., 
etc., all of which enliven the landscape and render the barest 
weather-beaten, tumble-down shack a thing of beauty and a joy 
forever. 




IN THE MIDST OF THE HAMMOCK ON KEY LARGO. IT IS IN THIS REGION 
THAT THE LARGEST MAHOGANY OF THE KEYS IS LOCATED. KEY LARGO IS 
THE LARGEST AND HIGHEST OF THE KEYS. THE PHOTO SHOWS THE LINE OF 
THE NEW RAILROAD TO KEY WEST. ( PHOTO BY FLORIDA PHOTOGRAPHIC 
CONCERN, FORT PIERCE, FLA.) 



59 



From Woodcraft, Auyiist, 1909. 



CHAPTER XI. 

MAHOGANY IX SOUTH FLORIDA AND THE WEST 

INDIES. 




EFORE describing mahogany wood let me 
quote some statistics as to the quantity im- 
ported into this country and the value of the 
import. I don't know how reliable these sta- 
tistics are. They are furnished by the Gov- 
ernment and are probably approximately 
correct. 

In 1908 41,678,000 feet of mahogan\- were 
imported into this country. Its value is given as $2,566,954, an 
average of $61.56 a thousand feet. This represents the price 
actually paid for it laid down in our ports, two-thirds to Atlantic 
and one-third to Gulf ports. Central America, Alexico and the 
West Indies furnished 65.5 per cent. South America 2.2 per 
cent, Africa 13.8 per cent, Asia 0.40 per cent, and 18.1 per cent 
came through Europe, mostly from England. 

Mexico, Nicaragua, British and S])anish Honduras, Cuba 
and Santo Domingo furnish the l)ulk of tlie mahogany used in 
this country, and some which reaches us througli Europe may 
have CdUU' nriginallx' from one of these i)laces. 

The value of mahogany from tropical America was $51.75, 
of tliat from Africa $51.13. of that from .South America $52.79, 
all about the same, while that whicli came through Rurope was 
worth twice as much, S105.78 per thousand, and that from Asia 
$88.63 per thousand. The great difTcrcncc in the ])rice is proha- 
lily due to the fact that the wood was of special, selected 
quality. 

Mahr)gany anfl other cabinet woods are often sinpped to 
England and then resbipped. Only a hundred miles across the 

60 



AND SOUTHERX FLORIDA 

Straits of Florida is the island of Andres in the Bahamas, a 
British possession. The same kind of mahogany is produced 
there that grows on our I'lorida Keys and near Cape Sable. 
This Andros mahogany has been shipped to England from time 
to time and I have no doubt that some of it crosses the ocean 
again to New York. 

It easil}' may Ix' seen from the above figures that up to the 
time the retailer gets hold of it, mahogany is not an expensive 
wood. It makes a great difference in this world whether one is 
buying or selling, and the difi^erence between the price the con- 
sumer pays and the price the producer gets is very wide, espe- 
cially on products of the soil. In many cases I have no doubt 
that there is fully $50 worth of hard human labor in almost 
every thousand feet of mahogany landed in American ports. 
There is small profit in it at this price. 

Mahogany is usually scattered in a tropical forest and is 
often transported with the greatest difficulty over rough roads 
or no roads with the crudest kind of vehicles and other appa- 
ratus to the nearest shipping point. Some small logs are often 
carried by pack mules over slippery and precipitous trails, while 
the transportation of a log for a mile or more on the heads of 
three or four negroes is not uncommon. 

One reads statements of the fabulous prices paid for ma- 
hogany. No doubt at times special logs will bring a high fig- 
ure, but for years I have endeavored to trace every such state- 
ment to its source and I have found them all unreliable, exag- 
gerated, or out and out figments of the imagination. Four or 
five months ago a popular American magazine published the 
statement, under the heading of "Notes," that two mahogany 
logs had sold in Liverpool for $1,500. I wrote to the magazine 
and it claimed it took the note from a newspaper. I wrote to 
the newspaper and it said it found the statement in a book on 
timber published in 1870. 

Logs sometimes bring high prices, but I think it is safe to 
assume that it happens rarely. A large part of the tree is usualiv 
left in the woods anyway and if the wood had such value it 
would pay to make a special trip to the spot just to get the stump. 

61 



THE KXERGLADES 

It will be seen from the statistics quoted above that 34.5 per 
cent of our mahogany comes from South America, Africa, Asia 
and through Europe. Just what trees yield this wood I- am, of 
course, unable to say. I am also, I think, quite safe in saying 
that nobody knows. There is a whole lot of wood which sells 
for mahogany, which looks like mahogany, and which brings 
just as much money as mahogany and may be just as good, but 
it is not all mahogany from a botanical standpoint. Nobody can 
tell the species of tree that yields a tropical timber by merely 
looking at the log. \\'ithout leaf, flower or fruit, or even bark, 
the naming of the tree which yielded the timber is simply the 
purest kind of guesswork. 

English tramp ships are running to all parts of the world. 
They pick up here and there small lots of anything marketable. 
A mahogany log. using the term "mahogany" in a commercial 
and not a botanical sense, on the wharf of an English port may 
come from one of many places and may be the product of a tree 
which looks no more like the mahogany tree than a peach re- 
sembles an apple. ^^lahogany in a commercial sense applies to 
any wood that will sell under that head ; in a botanical sense it 
applies only to Swietoiia mahagoni. I have heard of e.xpert 
mahogany dealers in England, and I presume we have the same 
in the United States, who can, as it were, look right througli 
a mahogany log. tell to a surety the kind of grain it will yield 
and the country which grew it. There is not the man living who 
from the appearance of the log or the finished wood can tell 
whether it came from Honduras, Mexico, the Bahamas. Cuba. 
Santo Domingo, Asia or Africa. It is very much the same with 
coffees. Java. Mocha and Rio are very often picked from the 
same tree. Some time ago I sent a sample of Florida mahogany 
in the form of a lilock two inches square to a mahogany dealer. 
He wrote back that the sample "evidently came from a tree five 
inches in diameter. Please send sample from a tree two feet 
in diameter." I don't believe the man is living who can tell 
from a block of wood two inches square without sapwood or 
hark whether it came from a tree five inches or five feet in diam- 
eter or whether it came from the top of a large tree or from a 

62 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

limb. The sample above referred to came from the heart of a 
large branch which had been reserved for boat timber. Close 
to a tropical seashore the limbs are usually much bent by the 
prevailing winds, but the wood is of very good quality and espe- 
cially fine for boat construction. 

The wood of the mahogany tree, in fact of every tree that 
I know of, varies very much, depending upon the conditions 
under which the tree grew. It must be borne in mind that the 
mahogany tree, although it cannot stand frost, will grow under 
other very adverse conditions. It will grow on hot coral rock 
on the Keys of Florida. Sometimes it is so close to the sea that 
its foliage is sprinkled with ocean spray. It will grow in parts 
of the West Indies where there is hardly a drop of rain for 
over six months at a time, and it will grow- on steep mountain 
sides high up in crevices of the rock. In such places where 
the growth is slow, the wood is heavy and rich in color and 
grain. In warm, tropical valleys where there is an abundant 
and constant supply of moisture and where the tree is actually 
intoxicated with the very richness of the soil, its growth is rapid 
and the wood is light and of less value. In Florida it usually 
grows in hardwood thickets called "hammocks." 

Some say that much of the mahogany on the market is really 
CcdrcJa or Spanish cedar. This may be so, since Spanish cedar 
from a tree which grows very slowly is hardly distinguishable 
from the wood of a mahogany tree v,hich has grown quickly. 
Spanish cedar and mahogany trees are closely related, although 
they do not look alike. The mahogany looks something like a 
live oak, while the Ccdrcla or Spanish cedar looks like a pecan. 
From my own observations in the American tropics (Mexico, 
Honduras. Cul^a and tlie Bahamas — there is no mahogany in 
Porto Rico") mahoganv logs are cut for shipment at Atlantic 
and Gulf ports from the mahogany tree Swicfoiia mahac/oiii. 

Color is perhaps the first quality in wood whicl: attracts at- 
tention. We have in tlie tropics white, red, yellow and black 
woods — the same as in races. Many tropical woods are dark 
in color, in fact I think dark colors predominate, especially reds 
and browns. Mahogany is usually a rich reddish brown not 



THE EVERGLADES 

unlike the color of the skin of a good healthy red Indian. Ac- 
cording lo an ot^cial color scale, 25 parts red, 64 black and 11 
orange produce the shade called "acajou ;" 85 of black to 15 of 
orange "mahogany," and 83 of black, 4 of red and 13 of orange 
form "mahogany brown." 

There are floors in parts of the tropics made of plank cut 
from the log by hand and from such woods that the colors 
alternate red, white and black. I believe that a good, rich, red- 
dish brown is a normal color at least for the tropics. In the 
races pure white is just as abnormal as jet black. At any rate 
a reddish brown color is a good characteristic. There are more 
bay horses than any other color, and in Spanish America they 
say, "A tired red horse is a dead horse," meaning, of course, that 
a red horse is so tough that he never gets tired. In my own 
experience red poultry and red pigs do better in the tropics than 
those of other colors. The tips of very tender foliage are usual- 
ly red. This is especially so in the tropics, but is not uncom- 
mon in the North, as with roses, Virginia creeper, etc. There is 
a red liquid in the outer cells of the plant which probably serves 
the purpose of screening out the actinic rays of the sun. 

Unless one has strong race prejudice, and one usually gets 
over that if he lives in the tropics long, a rich, healthy, brown- 
ish red complexion is tlie handsomest of all. Of course mahog- 
any wood varies in color, but reddish brown is the standard. It 
must not be dull but full of luster. In some cases when finished 
it has a satiny look which adds much to its beauty. Its color 
should be a rich red, darkening with age. In some woods this 
luster reaches a stage called "fire." Cape walnut, called also 
cannibal stinkwood. for instance, according to Stone, "exhibits 
much 'fire' or phosphorescent luster." Mahogany is cold to the 
touch. Birdseye mahogany is not uncommon and is produced by 
scars due to sap-suckers. In the Bahama Islands the mahogany 
is often badly ringed by saji-sucker holes. 

We look upon mahogany as a cabinet wood. In the coun- 
tries where it grows it is used for every purpose that a wood 
can be put to, not excepting fuel. It makes excellent shingles 

64 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

and was once used for this purpose in Jamaica. I believe that 
defective trees, limbage, etc., might still be profitably used for 
this purpose. A house shingled with mahogany would be hand- 
some without paint or stain. It would surely last as long as any 
wood and might not cost much more than first-class cypress. 
Shingle billets could be easily carried from the forest on the 
heads of negroes. Although often used for floors it becomes 
very slippery. 

It is a combination of useful qualities with beauty which has 
made mahogany famous. Its popularity is founded upon true 
worth. It is heavy, very hard, close-grained, very durable and 
takes a fine polish. It seldom warps, cracks or shrinks under 
trying conditions if properly seasoned. Many tropical woods 
crack badly when taken north, but mahogany stands all climates 
and lasts well under water if kept constantly wet. It is seldom 
attacked by wood-eating insects, but is invaded by wood-boring 
crustaceans if left too long on the seashore. It is mostly all 
heartwood. It usually has only a thin yellow zone of sapwood. 
Its only fault is the fact that it is hard to work. The annual 
rings which ordinarily make the grain of wood are often very 
indistinct in mahogany. In many cases they are not "annual" 
at all. Several rings or additions of wood may occur in a year. 
Many times what appear at first sight to be rings in tropical 
woods are merely bands of color. 

Mahogany must dry a little in order to float well. Some- 
times the trees are girdled on the stump, some time before cut- 
ting, and sometimes they are left to dry in the shade of the 
forest. In case one wants a fine grade of wood for boat build- 
ing, "mud seasoning" is good. Thus buried in mud a slow 
osmotic seasoning takes place which produces a wood of very 
superior grade. The wood has no special taste or smell. It 
colors water red. 

It was the first tropical cabinet wood used in Europe and for 
two centuries has had unabated popularity. It has figured more 
or less in literature but never more conspicuously than in the 
following short and charming ballad by Thackeray: 

65 



THE EVERGLADES 

"Christmas is here ; 

Winds whistle shrill, 

Icy and chill, 
Little we care : 
Little we fear 

Weather without, 

Sheltered about 
The mahogany tree. 

Once on the boughs 

Birds of rare plume 

Sang in its bloom ; 
Night birds are we: 
Here we carouse, 

Singing like them. 

Perched round the stem 
Of the jolly old tree." 

The mahogany tree is strictly tropical. Tt can endure only 
a small amount of frost. Tropical Florida, .south of Lake Okee- 
chobee, is its Northern limit. It grows in the Bermudas, which 
are farther North, but owing to the position of these islands in 
the ocean, separated from the mainland by the warm water of 
the Gulf Stream, their climate is tropical. 

It is of course a waste of time and money to try to grow 
mahogany in Northern regions. 1 mention this because I have 
received requests for seeds or young i)lants from Northern peo- 
ple. Although frost-tender, it is otherwise a hardy tree. It 
grows in all kinds of soils high in the mountains and so close to 
the seashore that it is sometimes killed by iloods of salt water 
during severe storms. During a hurricane in Morida in the 
fall of 1906. mahogany trees a foot in diameter on the Keys 
were killed by the salt water which poured over all the lower 
portions of these islands. 

In speaking of its hardiness, Rea. a surveyor of the British 
War Department, says: "The tree is of comparatively rapid 
growth, reaching maturity in about 200 years, the trunk e.xceed- 

66 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

ing 40 to 50 feet in length and 6 to 12 feet in diameter. It is 
very handsome, with enormous branches of soHd timber ; and 
rather strangely, when it springs from low levels and rich soil 
the wood is most inferior, being poor in color, soft and spongy, 
and consequently almost valueless. 

"That, however, which has been grown without nourishment 
on high levels, save what it derives from the atmosphere, is hard, 
figured, densely close in texture, as well as rich and deep in 
color, all qualifications which enhance its worth. It is also a 
curious fact that the tree does not seem to have any partiality, as 
it will flourish in low, marshy ground, or in a deep alluvial soil, 
or even on rocks to all appearance barren of earth ; in fact 
wherever the seeds chance to drop. Its development is m^rp 
rapid in the shade than in the open." 

The above corresponds with my own observations, although 
I have never seen mahogany trees 12 feet in diameter. There 
ire trees now standing on Key Largo, Florida, from 4 to 5 
feet in diameter and I have seen trees in Cuba 9 feet in diameter. 
Many of these tropical trees are heavily buttressed and only 
carry such size a short distance up the stem. Such trees are 
often cut ten feet from the ground. Mr. Rea lived for four 
years in St. Lucia and his observations are probably correct. 

Mahogany seldom grows alone in pure stand except perhaps 
m small clumps here and there scattered among a great variety 
of other trees. It seems quite able to hold its own and aban- 
doned clearings usually show many young mahogany trees. The 
fact that it endures some shade permits it to grow where maiiy 
other trees would never start. 

In the forest it grows, of course, taller than in the open, but 
it nevertheless likes to spread as does the beech. Some mahog- 
any trees which have been left for shade in pastures in the West 
Indies, especially in Jamaica, are truly magnificent in their 
spread, having a stately and sturdy look defying even the fierce- 
ness of tropical gales. Strange to say there is no mahogany in 
Porto Rico. I have heard of one or two trees on the island, 
but in the unsettled Luquillo Forest, now a federal reservation, 
I could not find a single tree. It grows in the island of Culebra, 

67 



THE EVERGLADES 

only a short distance to the eastward, and in abundance in Santo 
Domingo, only a short distance to the westward. 

it is hard to beheve that it could have been completely ex- 
terminated on the island. I believe such must have been the 
case, however, since place names often give one a clue to the 
character of the primeval woods. For instance, there is a place 
called "Mangier Caoba Laguna Soroco y Grande." Mangier 
refers to mangrove, caoba to mahogany, and I presume mahog- 
any once grew on the edge of the mangrove swamp or on islands 
in the swamp just as it does on the south coast of Cuba, Florida 
Keys and in the Bahamas. Although Cuba and Santo Domingo 
have been settled for about the same length of time, they have 
never had the population of Porto Rico. The scarcity of Span- 
ish cedar on the island tends to strengthen the belief that both 
of these trees have been practically exterminated. 

The mahogany is a prolific seed bearer and will grow in 
almost all locations with sufficient warmth and moisture. It is 
these qualities which enable it to hold its own in the majority of 
places where it grows. Browne in his "Trees of America," pub- 
lished in 1857, describes the tree fairly well as follows: "The 
Swictcnia mahagoni is one of the most beautiful among inter- 
tropical trees. Its trunk is often 40 feet in height and 6 feet in 
diameter, and it divides into so many massy arms, and throws 
the shade of its glossy foliage over so great an extent of sur- 
face that few more magnificent objects are to be met with in 
the vegetable world. Its summit is wide and spreading, sub- 
evergreen, and adorned with abrujitly pinnate, shining leaves. 
The flowers, which are produced in handsome spikes not unlike 
those of the lilac, are whitish, sometimes reddish or safifron color 
and are succeeded by fruit or capsules of an oval form about the 
size of a turkey's egg. The fruit ripens in early summer, bursts 
into five parts, and discloses its winged seeds, which are soon 
after dispersed by the winds ; some falling into the crevices of 
rocks, strike root, then creeping out on the surface, seek other 
chinks or crevices, re-enter, and swell to such a size and strength 
that at length the rocks are forced a.sunder. to admit the deeper 
])enetration of the roots and in this manner, in process of time. 

68 



AND SOUTHERN FLURiDA 

increase to large trees." The flower is not conspicuous but the 
large brown hard capsule incites curiosity. It splits in five seg- 
ments from the under side and the seeds, which are winged like 
maple seeds, flutter to the ground. On the Morida Keys these 
ripen in midwinter. 

How the tree can get a foothold on some of these coral islands 
is wonderful. The rock is hard and hot at times and the soil 
is so scant in some places that I believe it would be difficult to 
scrape together a wagon load on an acre. Mahogany may be 
easily grown from seed and the young plants may be easily 
transplanted. Last winter was a great seed year (1908-09). 
Trees ten feet in height were full of seed. In places on the 
Florida Keys one could collect seeds enough in a few hours to 
plant hundreds of acres. It is a common saying that trees fruit 
heavily a year or so after a severe hurricane. 

The State of Florida is now engaged in draining the Ever- 
glades. If this project is successful, and I can see no reason 
why it should not be, a large amount of land will be reclaimed 
and although much of this land will be too valuable for tree 
planting, there will, no doubt, be many acres better fitted for for- 
est trees than for field crops. This land would probably pro- 
duce mahogany to perfection. Some trees should be planted for 
shade at any rate. The mahogany trees frequently grow on 
islands in the mangrove swamps. 

Florida mahogany has been shipped to New York. The trade 
did not like it, in fact they found all kinds of fault with it. The 
logs were too small, which was due to the fact that the big logs 
were too heavy to handle. They claim it had black specks in it, 
but Honduras mahogany often has gray specks in it. In truth 
Florida Key mahogany is just like the Andros Island product. 
If we were to ship it to Liverpool and then reship it to New 
York it would sell no doubt to better advantage. Andros Island 
is only about fifty miles away and very similar in almost every 
respect to the Florida Keys. 

In speaking of Andros mahogany Rea says : "It grows to a 
large size but is generally cut to small dimensions owing to the 
want of proper roads and other means of conveyance. It is 

69 



THE EVERGLADES 

principally used for bedsteads, etc., and the crooked trees and 
branches for ship timber. It is a fine, hard, close-grained, mod- 
erately heavy wood, of a fine rich color, equal to tliat of Span- 
ish mahogany, although probably too hard to be well adapted 
for the purposes to which the latter is usually applied." The 
above description applies exactly to the Florida variety. 

It is commonly thought that hard, heavy woods grow slowly. 
This is not always the case. The northern black locust is a 
hard, heavy wood, but it grows very quickly. The same is so 
of some species of eucalyi:)tus. On the other hand some soft 
light cedars grow very slowly. Mahogany is usually considered 
a slow grower. 

If one counts the rings of a tropical tree and allows a ring 
to a year, as is common in tlie North, he is very apt to get fooled. 
He should first of all make sure that they are rings and not 
merely bands of color and then make sure that the tree in that 
special locality makes only one ring a year. Whenever a tree 
drops its leaves growth stops and a ring is formed. When a 
tree is rooted in a rich moist soil in a warm climate, it has no 
struggle except against its neighbors. It seems to do very much 
as it pleases. 

In a paper read before the British Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science on "Foliar Periodicity in Ceylon" by 
Herbert Wright there is the following statement: "In studying 
the behavior of our deciduous trees, the most usual conclusion 
is that no law and order prevails and any tree droj^s its leaves 
how and when it chooses. There are, however, certain features 
which point to a climatic response, and others which indicate 
that the personal or internal forces are the chief agencies at 
work." 

It seems strange to speak of tlie "personal" forces of trees, 
nevertheless the study of trees in the tropics, whicli is biological 
head(|uarters, leads one to the conclusion that they have, to say 
the least, many idiosyncrasies. Some trees will drop their leaves 
before and after the rainy season, some during the wet weather, 
scMiie will tlu'ow out new leaves at certain seasons of the year 
regardless of the weather, and so du with similar peculiarities in 

70 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

reference to flowering and fruiting. I have never seen a ma- 
hogany tree ch-op its leaves all at once unless when injured by 
flood or fire. Its foliage always looks the same. Sometimes it 
may be a little greener and there may be more young shoots 
at one time than at another, but its growth, judging trom the 
appearance of its leaves, is practically continuous. 

"When M. de Charnay visited Palenque in 1859 he had the 
eastern side of the palace cleared of its dense vegetation in order 
to get a good photograph; and when he revisited the spot in 1881 
he found a sturdy growth of young mahogany, the age of which 
he knew did not exceed twenty-two years. Instead of making 
a ring once a year, as in our sluggish and temperate zone, these 
trees had made rings at the rate of about one in a month ; their 
trunks were already more than two feet in diameter; judging 
froifi this rate of growth the biggest giant in the place need not 
have been more than two hundred years old, if as much." (The 
Discovery of America, Fiske, Vol. I, page 156.) The rings in- 
dicated that those trees were over two hundred and fifty years 
old. while in reality they were not over twenty-two and pos- 
sibly younger. 

In Vera Cruz wires are run from one tree to another on 
which the vanilla vine is grown. The vanilla vine grows wild in 
the hammocks of South Florida. It has never been developed 
commercially, but it resembles very closely the vanilla of Mex- 
ico. The mahogany tree is a favorite for this purpose. Cook, 
in his report on "Shade in Cofifee Culture," thus speaks of ma- 
hogany: "It has been used for shade in cacao plantations in the 
Island of Guadeloupe, and according to Guerin, is preferable to 
Erythrina Indica, since it resists parasites, and the wood is valu- 
able after thirty or forty years." 

In Trinidad the planting of mahogany under forest condi- 
tions has been advocated by Superintendent Hart of the Botan- 
ical Gardens, who finds that under favorable conditions the an- 
nual average increase of thickness in the trunk is about one inch, 
and even in trees sixty years old or over is about nine-tenths 
of an inch. American mahogany has been successfully planted 

71 



THE k\'i-:rglades 

in India. Even in Africa the mahogany forests are under the 
control of foresters. 

A. II. Unwin, Forester, lienin City, West Africa, estimates 
that there are about 400 trees and 1,200 logs per square mile. 
This is less than one tree to the acre. In this region the mahog- 
any is big, with large buttress-like roots, so that the tree i> cut 
from platforms 10 to 15 feet from the ground. The ground is 
so soft and trees scattered to such extent that the logs after 
being squared are pulled by man power on rough rollers to the 
nearest stream. The timber is then rafted to the coast. 

An important part of the forester's work in the Benin region 
is the planting and raising of seedlings to be planted to replace 
the trees cut. According to the old rule twenty seedlings are 
allowed for each tree felled. 

A group of yoimg trees is made near and around the stump 
of the old tree and seedlings are also put in along the hauling 
roads. In this way a future growth is asstired. In three years 
one of the plants has attained a height of 20 feet and the aver- 
age is even 15 feet. There is also a diameter limit but the figures 
are not given by Unwin. 

The firms working these lands pay a royalty and export duty 
which is sufficient to pay the cost of the Forestry Service. 

I once had the pleasure of traveling on the steamship Sokoto 
now running from Halifax to ^Mexico. She was formerly in the 
West African trade, oil nuts, mahogany, etc., and her officers 
told how the naked natives j^ropclled these logs through the 
breakers to where they could be reached by the ship's launch. 
All this labor after dragging the logs from the forest to the 
-.Jiiire 1)\- man ])(i\\er alime, then the long journey- ti« i'Jigland 
ami perliai)s to America, is evidence of the lalxtr required to 
supply the market with this valuable wood from regions where 
men do the work of oxen and machines. 

I have a sample of African mahogany secured in a wood- 
working establishment in Ottawa, Canada. It seems so light and 
soft and dull in color that I can hardly imagine how it could pass 
for mahogany. 

72 



AXD SOUTllERX FLORIDA 

In case any enterprising person desires to grow mahogany I 
would suggest that any of the fohowing trees be planted with it 
at the same time, since the returns would be quicker. The plant- 
ing of the following on suitable soil in a favorable location 
would no doubt in time yield handsome returns. Since mahog- 
any endures some shade the mixture would be an advantage. 

Ccdrcla toona — The "toon tree" of India and the "red cedar" 
of Australia. Wood light, soft, red, very rapid growth, a very 
valuable wood used for furniture, carvings, boxes, canoes, 
shingles, etc. 

Ccdrcla odorafa^-"Cedro hembra," "Cuban cigar-box cedar" 
or "Spanish cedar." Wood similar to the above. Highly odor- 
ous and supposed to keep insects out of cigars. 

Cedrcla BrasUicnsis — "Acajou." Wood soft, fragrant, red, 
easily worked. Trees of this species planted in Dr. Franceschi's 
garden in Santa Barbara, Cal., have grown with great rapidity. 

Gaurca tricJiilioidcs, called "Gauraguao" in Porto Rico. This 
species closely resembles the above mentioned trees but the wood 
is not fragrant. 

When the countries of the American tropics get over the 
revolution habit, when trunk lines of railroads get established 
and freight rates decrease, and when wood gets scarcer and of 
more value, there will be stronger incentive toward the proper 
utilization and regeneration of these tropical forests. There will 
l)e more careful exploitation with the future in view and not 
merely the utilization of a product which nature has given us. 
)Ve are in the habit of looking too much to the Government to 
do things. In consequence they are never done. If on the 
average one man in every ten owns and properly cares for ten 
acres of timber land, there will never be any danger of a timber 
famine. It is up to the Government, however, to arrange condi- 
tions of protection, taxation and even transportation in such a 
way that private parties may feel safe in such an enterprise. The 
main function of government is to afiford protection to prop- 
erty and life and to hold in check the greed of great corporations 
so that individual incenti\e, initiative and industrial activity may 

7?> 



THE EVERGLADES 

have full encouragement and progress without interruption or 
onerous restrictions. 

But when one tries such a commendable enterprise in the 
land of the mahogany tree he usually comes into sudden contact 
with high taxation, with sole concessions granted to other parties, 
thievery, incendiarism, shipping fees, brokerage, graft, high 
freight rates, dishonest commission agents, local uprisings and a 
host of other difficulties which the producer has to struggle 
against before his product reaches the consumer. There is the 
pro(kicer who with the help of nature makes the product at a 
siuail profit and there is the consumer who uses it, is glad to get 
it and pays high for it, but between the two is always a group 
who by hook or crook usually carry off the lion's share of the 
spoil. 

Mahogany is quite common in Florida south of Biscayne 
Bay and the Everglades. Much of this territory extending 
southward to Cape Sable is little known. There is an area as 
big as the State of Delaware in a condition of pristine wildness. 
It is usually marked the Big Mangrove swamp on the maps and 
is not unlike the big Zapata swamp on the south coast of Cuba. 

When I use the term "swam]i"' I mean it in the Southern 
sense, namely, a low, wet, but wooded area. Here and there in 
these swamps are slightly elevated portions or islands. On these 
islands there is usually a rich hammock growth. In these ham- 
mocks mahogany is common, in fact in one place it predominates 
to such extent that the place is called "Aladeira Hammock" or 
"Island." 

Forest land in tropical Florida may be divided into pineland. 
hammock and mangrove swamp. There arc hammock islands in 
the Everglades, there are patches of hammock here and there in 
the i^inc woods, and some of the Florida Keys are covered or 
were originally covered with a heavy hammock growth. The 
hammock in this part of Florida consists almost entirely of trees 
of the Antillean flora, trees which grow here and are native 
here, but many of them do not reach their optimal growth in 
this section. This part of Florida corresponds very closely with 
the I'.ahama Islands. 

7± 



AND SOUTHERx\' FLORIDA 

The presence of hammock growth here and there may be 
explained in two or three ways. The hammock may be the 
chmax forest. Suppose we have a bare parcel of land ; suppose 
the various forces of nature scatter seeds over this area; sup- 
pose there are no retarding influences of any kind such as flood 
or fire or insect invasion, this land would according to some 
authorities become in time and remain a hammock growth. 

If fire swept over the territory, it would soon be covered 
with nothing but pines and a few other trees able to withstand 
some fire. If floods of fresh water covered it frequently, it 
would remain a saw-grass country with perhaps clumps of 
cypress, saw palmetto and a few other trees here and there. If 
floods of salt water covered it, it would become a mangrove 
swamp. It is true that hammock growth is gradually working 
into the pine land and into the mangrove swamp, but I lean to 
the opinion that the soil where the hammock grows is richer — 
richer at the start mainly because of the nature of the rock 
which disintegrates to make the soil. 

In man}' parts of the tropics there is a so-called limestone 
which, when it disintegrates, yields a poor soil. This is in truth 
not a limestone but a sandstone, the sand being cemented to- 
gether with a little lime. Wherever a pure limestone disintegrates 
it yields a rich, reddish soil on which hammock grows. When a 
calcareous sandstone disintegrates it yields a poor soil on which 
the Caribbean pine predominates. A limestone soil is usually 
good. Grain and fodder from such soil is rich in bonemaking 
ingredients and in turn the people of such soils are usually big- 
boned and rugged. 

When I said above that the land in South Florida betv^een 
the Florida East Coast Railroad and Cape Sable is unexplored, 
I meant that it had never been surveyed and properly mapped. 
The islands are indefinitely marked and the water courses are 
merely indicated by dotted lines. Men have been all through it 
over and over again. Some new travelers go into the region now 
and then, and when they look around and see no human beings 
or signs of human beings they conclude that they are disco\'erers 

75 




IN TIIIC MANGKOVK SWAMP. THIS TKKK GKOWS IV S\I.T WATr.K AND IS A CK'K AT 
COXSOr.lDATOK OF MinnV SHORKS and a PROTI.CTION IN TI.MIS OF STOKM. 
(PHOTO I!V HO.MKK SAl NT-GAUDI.NS.) 



AXD SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

walking on land where the foot of white man has never trod 
before. But plume hunters, prospectors, scientists, etc., have 
been there. 

It will be a long time before mahogany is exhausted in this 
region owing to the unsettled nature of the country and its in- 
accessibility. The drainage of the Everglades may some day 
lower the level of the water throughout this whole region. Even if 
it lowers it only a few inches it will increase to a great extent 
the area where mahogany can grow. 

Over in the Bahama Islands, what we call the hammock is 
usually referred to as "bush" or "scrub." This land is the "pro- 
vision land" \\here the bulk of the crops is grown. Here the 
terms bush and scrub are applied, very much as in Africa and 
Australia, to forests of considerable size, especially when there 
is a thick undergrowth. 

The Bahamas belong to Great Britain and there is mahogany 
on almost every island, but the largest quantity is on the largest 
and least settled island of Andros. These people have made good 
use of this mahogany at home in furniture and boat construc- 
tion. Labor is cheap there, but if the negroes continue to emi- 
grate to Florida as fast as during the past winter it will soon be 
scarce. 

Mahogany is seldom shipped north from Florida or the 
Bahamas because it is worth at home as much as it would bring 
in Northern markets. There is no mahogany in Porto Rico, and 
there is very little in Jamaica, so that Cuba and Santo Domingo 
are the two islands which have the most of it and which ship the 
bulk of all the West Indian mahogany in the market. 

I have been over a large part of Cuba several times and I 
believe Cuba has very little timber of any kind to spare. There 
are great areas devoid of timber. One hears of vast tracts of 
virgin timber, but they usually dwindle in size and density the 
closer one comes to them. The Spanish and American ideas as 
to quantities of timber are often at variance. I know of no 
place where forestry is more needed. Cuba exports mahogany 
and imports yellow pine. She practically trades mahogany for 
yellow pine. 

11 



th;e everglades 

Cuba is not all a tropical land of luxuriant vegetation. There 
are miles after miles of pine-covered sand land in i'inar del Rio. 
The time is practically at hand when Cuba can use every stick of 
timber she cuts right at home. With a population of over 
2,000,000 and a strong emigration from Spain there is necessity 
for conserving all available timber. The houses of the well-to- 
do are now mostly made of brick, stone and tile, while the natives 
depend almost entirely on poles and palm thatch for building 
material. 

Santo Domingo is therefore left as the main source of West 
Indian mahogany for the future. In this beautiful island is con- 
centrated all that is good and bad in the West Indies. It has 
the highest mountains, the deepest valleys and the richest soil 
and vegetation of the Antilles. It was the hrst place to be settled 
in this continent, the last to be developed. It is here that mahog- 
any is most abundant and of fine quality. The land is rich in 
minerals, with a fine climate, or in fact many climates, with a 
thin population, with some poor pine land, but much of it is rich 
soil and as virgin in appearance as when Columbus landed. It 
consists of the famous Haitian Republic and the Republic of 
Dominica. Conditions in this island are by no means as bad as 
painted, and even Haiti, the Black Republic, has not been as 
complete and dismal a failure as is often represented. 

Some very valuable timber concessions have been granted by 
the Haitian Government within the past few years. The fol- 
lowing c|uote(l from the New York Sun corresponds exactly with 
what I have heard from travelers who have visited the interior 
of the Black Republic : 

"That the country is sadly misgoverned by her politicians 
there seems, however, no reason to doubt. On the other hand 
Haiti pays the interest on her bonds, encourages education by 
liberal grants, protects foreigners, and of late lias welcomed the 
exploitation of her natural resources by .American, English and 
German capital. The hospitality of the country people, their 
sterling honesty and natural kindliness, are vouched for by all 
travelers who have disregarded the ogrelike reputation of the 

78 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

people and penetrated the interior. In the cities the stranger 
can always look to his consulate for protection. In short, Haiti 
is not as black as it has been painted, but we would not venture 
to predict that the feuds of her politicians will not ultimately 
compel intervention for the general good and the interests of 
other nations." 

I have never visited the interior of either Haiti or the Re- 
public of Dominica, but judging from what I have seen merely 
from the coast towns and in sailing along its shores, it is one of 
the most beautiful and varied spots of earth. Both Haiti, now 
a republic in control of negroes, once a French colony, French 
being still the common language, and the Republic of Dominica, 
once a Spanish possession, now independent with the United 
States Government in charge of its custom houses and with 
Spanish the common language, have had the most checkered 
history possible to imagine. 

I think the time is near at hand when there will be estab- 
lished a West Indian trunk line of railroad. The people of 
Florida are beginning to realize this when they see trainload after 
trainload of Cuban pineapples pass their doors. The Florida 
East Coast Railroad will soon be completed to Key West. If the 
car ferry from Key West to Havana is successful, sugar and 
other products will come direct from the plantations along the 
Cuban lines to our Northern markets w'ithout breaking cargoes. 
A trunk line of railroad now runs to the eastern end of the 
island. Another short car ferry would reach Haiti. By using 
lines already constructed Haiti and the Dominican Republic 
could be tapped at slight expense. By making another car ferry 
to Mavaguez, Porto Rico, and using the railroad alreadv in 
operation to San Juan, this West Indian trunk line would be 
complete. When this happens, and I can see no reason why it 
should not happen, many fine forests of rich tropical woods will 
become available and will be shipped direct by rail into this coun- 
try. Owing to the lack of roads, etc.. it is impossible to get 
much of this timber to the coast. Even in the Donn'nican Re- 
public, where timber is still comparatively plentiful, it costs $30 

70 



THE EVERGLADES 

per thousand or thereabouts to dehver mahogany at the ship's 
side. 

The largest portion of the Dominican and the Haitian repub- 
hcs is covered with forest. According to an official report there 
are over 6,000,000 acres of hardwoods in Santo Domingo, among 
which mahogany ranks tirst, and mahogany from this island 
ranks first in quality. 

Santo Domingo has broad, high plateaus with cool climate 
where it is claimed wheat, oais, rye, apples, pears and straw- 
berries thrive. Loma Tina, 9,420 feet above sea level, is the 
highest peak in the West Indies. There are large quantities ot 
Spanish cedar, also pine and "sabina," sabina being the Spanish 
name for our Elorida pencil cedar. The silva of Santo Domingo 
is undoubtedly richer than that of any other West Indian island. 
These forests yield gums, resins, medicines, etc., and I have been 
told that cinchona, the tree from which quinine is made, grows in 
the mountains. Our vice consul from Puerto Plata writes as 
follows in reference to the hardwoods of Santo Domingo : 

"Those chiefly exported are cedar, mahogany, lignum vitae, 
lancewood, fustic, greenheart and mora. The largest diameters 
procurable are, in cedar, 60 inches ; mahogany, 35 inches, and 
in lignum vitae, 10 inches. On the northern side of the island 
«|uantities of large timber can be procurefl about 10 miles from 
the railroad. It is expensive to draw out the wood. There are 
no roads, and ])aths have to be cleared through the forests. 
The peojilc usually drag the logs with bulls, but the more intel- 
ligent use two large wheels on an axle, on which they hang the 
timber. Roads could be made in the woods for wagons, but as 
this would be ex])cnsivc it would all depend on the extent of the 
enterprise. 

"In some sections there are rivers on which the logs may 
be floated, but one has to wait for a freshet, which often delay> 
three years. The facilities and price of getting out the wood 
depends entirely on the location. Where one owns the trees, 
the medium cost of felling, squaring, hauling from forest, rail- 
road freight, and delivering alongside ship is about $30, Ameri- 



AXD SOUTHERX FLORIDA 

can money, per 1,000 feet (^mahogany or cedar j. Trees can be 
bought standing at from 25 cents to $1 per tree, depending on 
the size, condition and location. It is preferable to purchase the 
right to fell over an extent of land, hrst going over same to esti- 
mate the amount of timber that can be gotten out, or one can 
buy it at the rate of $5 per 1,000 feet. 

"A foreigner who attends to his own business is perfectly 
safe, both in life and property. The only inconvenience that 
would be experienced is that his laborers will leave him when a 
disturbance is going on in the district where he may be working, 
to avoid being impressed either in the government or revolu- 
tionists' ranks. After this danger is past the}' will return to 
their work. For this kind of work, laborers can be procured at 
$1. American, per day. The price of labor is higher in this 
class, for it is considered harder than the ordinary run and as 
requiring more skill." 

Some time ago I sent a sample of Florida mahogany to Her- 
bert Stone, a wood expert and an officer of the Association of 
Economic Biologists. Aside from his scientific knowledge of 
the subject Mr. Stone has operated a business in Birmingham, 
England, in which many varieties of wood were handled. The 
following is his reply in reference to the sample sent. The 
sample was cut from a tree on Elliott's Key, Florida. The tree 
grew close to the sea. in fact was killed by a severe storm in 
October, 1906: 

"The piece of mahogany is most interesting and valuable. It 
is precisely the same as the specimen I have, named Caoba, ex- 
cept as regards depth of color." 

The specimen he refers to marked Caoba is described in 
Stone's "Timbers of Commerce." This specimen came from 
Mexico and is a type specimen received from the Royal Gar- 
dens, Kew, being one of the series of Mexican woods exhibited 
at the Paris Exposition of 1900 by the Mexican Government. 
The specimen was marked, "Caoba : Nombre Scientifico. Sivic- 
tcnia mahagoni." The alternative common name given is "Bois 
d'Acajou a Meubles," seeming to indicate according to the French 
view that this wood is especially fitted for furniture construction. 

SI 




A COOL T1LE-C0VEKE;D bungalow in SOUTHKKN FLORIDA — COMBINATION WOOL) 
AND STONE WITH LOTS OF WINDOW SPACE. 




A siii.\(;i.i:i) nrNciAi.nw, southekx flokida. 



Fioin the Everglade Mayazine. 




CHAPTER XII. 

BUNGALOW CONSTRUCTION IN SOUTH FLORIDA. 

INCE coming to Florida, almost ten years ago, 
1 have been designing and building bungalows. 
During this period there has hardly been a time 
when I have not been altering an old one or 
planning or building a new. All the while I 
have been striving to produce something per- 
fectly adapted to the environment. Long be- 
fore 1 could finish one I would discover changes 
that would cheapen the cost of construction or add beauty or 
comfort to the structure. I disregarded all precedent, had dif- 
ficulties with mechanics who would persistently do things the old 
way until finally I found myself doing most of the work with the 
help of a couple of negroes, who were willing workers but who 
could neither see straight nor saw straight. 

In this part of Florida we sometimes begin at the beginning 
by cutting the trees and hauling the logs to the mill. The soil is 
lime rock, some of it loose, but much of it solid. This is good 
building material and by blasting, a lot of it may be secured on a 
small space for house walls, fence walls and roads in the process 
of clearing the land. The holes when filled with trash and Tak- 
ings are fine for bananas and papaws. By building a kiln of 
wood and the proper kind of rock a fairly good quality of lime 
may be secured at a very low figure. With w^ood, stone, lime, 
sand and water all ofif the very lot you are building on, the house 
becomes in truth a product of the land. 

The next step is to buy a galvanized iron pipe and a cheap 
pitcher pump. A twenty-foot length of pipe and sometimes 
much less is ample. A coupling is put on the end of the pipe. 
One edge of this cou])ling is filed' or pounded sharp and opened 
over the beak of an anvil for a cutting surface. By churning this 



83 



THE EXERGLADES 

pipe up and down through the soft, white rock wath the help of a 
Httle water two men in a few hours can have a pump in good 
working order — pump, pipe and labor not costing more than a 
ten-dollar bill. 

A pile of planed lumber, costing about ^22 per thousand, a 
case of dynamite, with caps and fuse, and with plenty of lime and 
water, all is in readiness for business. I find it pays to mix some 




A FAVORITE TYPE OF HOUSE I X T H K HJltACCU DISTKKT (IK WEST CUIiA, WHERE 
CLIMATIC CONDITIONS, VEGETATION', KTC, AUK SIMIl.AK TO SOUTH FLORIDA. 



cement in the mortar and cement is now so cheap that the in- 
crease in cost is slight. The center of a thick lime-mortar wall 
does not harden for a long time. A little cement therefore helps 
to stiffen it. By building low of rock and timber and by giving 
the main lines of the structure the right proportions and sharp 
outlines to produce contrast, the house appears to grow out of 
the land and when surrounded by vines and shrubbery becomes 
in fact part and parcel of it. 

84 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

The natural conditions to be considered are long, dry periods, 
continuous sunshine for months, very heavy rains and strong 
winds at times, which drive water in a fine spray through the 
smallest chink. 

This calls for tight, cool, solid, low structures. I should add 
also that the well water is hard and cisterns are necessary, so that 
the roof must be of a material that will not taint or discolor or 
render impure the water. 

Although a forester by profession, I do not believe that the 




A CUUAX "r.DHIO A HOUSK lU'lI.T M AIXI.Y OF PALM THATCH. 

earth rotates upon a wooden axis, and I realize also that wood 
has been used in the past for many purposes merely because of 
its abundance and cheapness. It is, however, in the end an expen- 
sive constructive material if we consider the cost of paint and 
rejiairs, the danger from fire and the tribute we pay to fire and 
insurance companies. 

The appearance of it is. however, good and although rock in 
this section is as cheap at the start, even considering the low 
price of lumber, many prefer the efl:ects gained by a combination 
of both. 



THE K\ERGLAUES 

I have used cement blocks, concrete, paper roofing, corrugated 
iroi., shingles, tile, etc. I have even used old barrel staves, cut in 
half, for .shiiii^k's. When one li\cs near the shore there is a pos- 
sibility of collecting a k^t of \aluable drift luniljcr. I liave cap- 
tured ash, mahogany and Spanish cedar logs adrift in the bay. 
The tile in ni\' liearth came from the Hoor of the engine room of 
a wrecked steamer. The wrecks often yield brass hinges, etc., 
which are difficult to get in any t~)ther way. The enterprising 
beachcomber can uxuall_\- fnul man_\- u>cful article- along the 




Tvi'i (II- I'.r \(, Alow SI rill) TO thk climatk ok soith kiokida. 



shore and the waste of lumber on the beaches is enormous, since 
it is soon riddled witli holes and rendered useless by borers of 
various l:inds. 

Since the roof is lialf the l)nilding. let mc dispose of it first. 
Paper roofing or felt rooting is not \'ery durable, it taints the 
water and looks cheap at best. Few people desire it as a perma- 
nent roof cover, although if carefully put on and frei|uently 

.9r, 



AXD SOUTHERX FLORIDA 

painted, ii is tight and lasts longer than one would expect under 
the trying conditions of the tropics. 

We have no snow, of course, and steep roofs are therefore 
unnecessary ; in fact the roofs I have built have grown flatter 
Luitil I have now reached the flat roof stage. A flat roof is 
easier to l)uild, requires less material and in heavy rains and high 
winds much of the water l)lows ofif instead of into the house. 

Shingles taint the water, curl up and open up in the hot sun 
so that the rain heats in and insects find a fine harbor under 



Wall PERGOL^^ 




Wall FEitGOLA 



them. Corrugated iron is hot and nois)-, although extensively 
used everywhere in the tropics, because it is cheap and quickly 
\nn on. It is tight and yields g(Kid water. Covered witli concrete 
it forms a fine roof. Tiles are beautiful and cool, but they are 
seldom tight and since they are usually elevated on strips a 
couple of inches above the boards of the roof they form a fine 
liarbor for rats a:-!d other xcrmiii. If everv crack is cemented 



THE EVERGLADES 

an enterprising tropical rat will work at a tile till he loosens it. 
In time he will succeed in pulling out cement enough to squeeze 
through. Then he has lovely quarters. He could not be safer 
from intrusion. 

I no longer build large houses. I have adopted instead the 
unit system on the bookcase plan. Each unit measures twelve by 
twenty-two or thereabouts. These can be built around a central 
court in any numl)er to suit the size of your family, your lot 
and your 1)ank account. These may be connected by '"blow- 
ways" or "dog trots" or "pergolas" or "galleries" or "porches." 
I was working toward this plan when I struck the following 



ClSTEI^N 




LEADEI^ FROM R.GOF 



CONCRETE SLAB 
OVER CISTERN 



■WINDOWS, COVERED WITH 
COPPER WIRE FOR 
VENTILATION, BIG ENOUGH 
TO CR.AWT_ THROUGH 

PIPE AND SPIGOT 



FLOOR OF COURT 



CONE. SHAPED BOTTOM 



in an article on Chinese art in the International luicyclopedia : 
"A Chinaman's house, if he is a rich man. is a group of small 
one-story buildings interspersed with gardens, all within a bound- 
ing wall." 

That lills my bill exactly, and I am neither Chinese nor rich. 
The cost of a unit is about $200 and each unit ought to l)e rentable 
almost anywhere at $5 per month. Suppose one owns only a 
small lot. l^lace a unit on each corner. Connect the units with 
pergolas and close the spaces open to the street with an attrac- 
tive wall. In the center one would have a spacious patio. 



88 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

In the patio is the place for the cistern, which should he huilt 
above ground. If above ground the water may be completely 
drawn ofT at any time by means of a spigot. The bottom of the 
cistern should be cone-shaped, with the apex down, from which 
the pipe leading to the spigot should start. In that way every 
speck of sediment may be drawn off at any time. 

In the tropics the cistern should be screened and well ven- 
tilated. It is cooler above ground than below it. Pump water is 
always warm in cool weather. If the cistern material is slightly 
porous all the better. The evaporation will cool the water like a 
Spanish olla and on the basis of the iceless refrigerator. It is 
necessary to screen out the mosquitoes since cisterns are their 
favorite breeding places. 

£2 FT ► 




8 FT 






PIER 



PIEE 



The flat roofs are fine places for solar heaters. A flat tank 
on the roof into which water may be pumped by hand with a 
small force pump in a sunshiny climate yields fine, warm water 
for bathing if covered with glass sash. 

The following is a brief discription of how I build a unit 
house: I lay up a narrow wall of rough stone (12x22 feet), a 
foot or more above the ground. I usually build against boards 
and pile in mortar and rock. This enclosure I fill with rock, 
which is packed and pounded down solid. Over the surface of 
this I lay a cement floor. 

On the cement floor I set up frames of 2x6-inch stufif. each 
frame 8x8 feet, two frames on each side and one at each end. 



89 



THE E\'ERGLADES 

This leaves room for three piers on each side. These piers are 
triangular in shape, showing two feet on each face on the out- 
side. They are constructed of concrete, one part cement, two 
sand and four blasted rock. This mixture is thrown in a wet 
state inside of rough pier forms. 

By making these piers triangular they are strong; it gives a 
line space inside for hanging a mirror or picture or for shelves 
and it avoids sharp corners in the house. The tops of the 8x8 
frames serve as a plate on which the roof beams rest. They rest 
also on the tops of the piers. 

All roofs in the tropics should have a good overhang. In 
early times on this coast houses were built with practically no 



PI ^((S 



2 FT 



h^ m H 



srT 



zrr 



:m: 



8 FT 







•PIER 




FK^ME5 ZX6 
TIER 

rOUNDATION- 
'WALL 



PIER 



CEMENT PLOOR 



eaves. They saved lumber and felt safer in times of storm. 
Eaves throw the water from the house and shade the walls, thus 
rendering the house much cooler, since the secret of kee])ing co^l 
in the tropics is keeping in the shade and in good ventilation. 

On top of the roof-beams 1 lay corrugated iron. Boards may 
be used instead between the beams and afterwards removed. On 
this I lay four inches of concrete reinforced with poultry fencing, 
barbed wire or common galvanized wire of any kind. A rim ol 
cement serves for a gutter and the slope is left to one corner or 
to the middle of one side. Thus iron gutters are dispensed with. 
This roof forms a pleasant mirador and a second story may be 
put on in the same way if the owner desires. 

90 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

The main part is complete — the finish is easy. A Tropical 
house should have many openings so as to be all-porch in hot 
weather and yet tight as a drum in times of storm. Tongue 
and groove stuff shingled on the outside is good. I use narrow 
shingles (three-inch) and put one nail in each shingle. A small 
shingle when it contracts makes a smaller crack than a wider one 
and if only one nail is used it is less apt to split in the process of 
expansion and contraction. I prefer shingles and up-and-down 
boarding to clapboards, since then the rain drips or runs down 
with the grain of the wood. Good copper screening is necessary, 
but glass is often dispensed with, solid board shutters being often 
used. 

Such a building is cool and cheap. It has no large timbers 
in it. It is anchored to the ground by stone pillars and a solid 




GATE '3TONE CONCT^ETE - PIERS 



slab of a roof. One of the corner piers may be made hollow 
for a chimney, and a fireplace is pleasant since there comes a 
time in almost all tropical countries when a fireplace fire is 



grateful. 



5uch a house looks plain and solid — Assyrian or Zuni-like 
in character — quite in contrast to many of our ornate, ginger- 
bread carpenteresque constructions, but the shubbery in the 
patio and the vine-covered pergolas and fences with many 
shades of leaf and flower give it all variety necessary. These 
units may be connected with a fence and the following I have 
found to be very good and not very expensive : Put up posts 
ten or twelve feet apart, five or six feet high and one foot 
square, built in a form of the same kind of concrete mentioned 
above. Connect these with a wall two or three feet high. Run 

91 



THE EVERGLADES 

a 4x4 railing along the top of the posts and fill the space with 
poultry wire. This is "horse high, pig tight and bull strong." 
and is at the same time attractive and fine for vines. The^e unit 
houses cannot properly be called bungalows, since a bunoalow 
is supposed to be a low. flat, rambling, wooden structure, often 
with a thatched roof in the East Indies, but the term in America 





PIGEON 
DEPABTMENT 



CHICKEN 
DEPAI^TMENT 



EINTTSANCE 
TO COTE 



ENTRANCE 

TO p:ge,on 

DEPT. 




DOOIE 



DUCK DEPAI^TMENT 



DOOT^ 



now covers a multitude of sins. One of these unit houses I 
have built for a garage, but prefer to call it an "autola." One 
imit may be used for a kitchen and lavatory. In case the baby 
is cross or some one snores it is easy to relegate them to the 
iniits in the farthest corner of the patio. In conclusion let me 
add that no place, however small, is complete without a place 

92 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

for animals of various kinds, the houses for wliich may be built 
in the same way around a central court. Then, too, many people 
are fond of pigeons. I have built a dove cote twenty feet in the 
air on top of four posts put slantwise in the ground. Two feet 
from the ground I have built a iloor of boards which serves as 
a roof for the ducks and a floor for the hens. Six or eight feet 
higher up I have built another board floor, which serves as a 
roof for the chickens and floor space for pigeons. The whole is 
enclosed in netting. The pigeon house has a hole in the center 
underneath so that they can enter their department from below 
and thus be safe from intruding hawks, 



O.t 




1 



A UNIT OR PUEBLO HOUSE IN PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION. CONCRETE ROOF AND 
CONCRETE FLOORS. THIS HOUSE CONSISTS OF THREE UNITS JOINED TOGETHER 
ON A TRIANGULAR LOT. VIEW FROM SOUTHWEST. 

(photo V,Y KAUFMAN, MIAMI, FLA.) 




SAMK llnUSI-: — \II-\V FKOM \i )l T 1 1 W KST. 



From Soutlnaud Mayazinc, igio. 




CHAPTER XIII. 

THE EVERGLADES OF FLORIDA. 

OUTH of Lake Okeechobee, reputed to be the 
largest body of fresh water wholly within 
the confines of the United States except, of 
course. Lake Michigan, is a large tract of 
marsh land, called the Everglades. A glade 
is usually defined as a grassy opening, strip 
or lane, between growths of trees. There are 
many such little glades between the long 
pine-covered ridges which jut out into what the natives desig- 
nate the main or Big Glades. This is, no doubt, the meaning of 
the word Everglades, the term ever signifying all, or wholly 
glade or grassy, with few islands — in short, mile after mile of 
low grass morass. 

This territory is all south of latitude 27°, the same latitude 
as the valleys of the Nile and Ganges, and is the only part of 
the mainland of the United States with a tropical or Antillean 
flora, for although a part of Texas is also below this same 
parallel, the land is more or less arid, and there is no great 
body of warm water to the northwestward to temper the cold 
winds from that quarter. We may safely say, therefore, that 
the Everglade region is the only part of the mainland of the 
United States which is truly humid tropical, the only place 
where tropical crops can be successfully produced without irri- 
gation, although irrigation is desirable in almost all tropical 
countries. 

The warm trade winds reach us from the West Indies, so 
that climatically and botanically we are in the same class with 
Western Cuba and the Bahamas, and, although it is a little 
cooler here in winter, it is all the better, since cool weather, 
up to a certain point, of course, produces quality in fruits and 



95 



THE EXERGLADES 

vegetables — that is. richness of flavor combined with firmness, 
permitting shipments long distances. 

The Everglade region is over three million acres in extent, 
fully as large as Porto Rico or Jamaica. From the center of 
Lake Okeechobee to Miami is at least a hundred miles, and 
southward to the shore of the Hay of Florida is fifty more. 

Although there are patches of sand and marl and rock, the 
soil of the Everglades is mostly black muck, the result of ages 
of decomposition of vegetable matter. Reclaimed muck lands 
throughout the world usually have great productivity, and, there- 
fore, high value. The fact that these muck lands are in a region 
where tropical fruits and tropical staple crops, such as sugar 
cane, as well as Northern vegetables, grow in midwinter, gives 
this region an added value over muck lands elsewhere. I spoke 
above of "Northern vegetables," but we must not forget that 
the original home of many of these was in the Southland. 

This vast area of mud sloughs is usually completely inun- 
dated for several months of the year. It is a weary waste of 
saw-grass, through which neither walking nor boating is satis- 
factory. Remove the water, burn off the saw-grass, and the 
aspect soon changes. The cool breezes sweep over it ; it is a 
broad, level prairie ; other grasses and wild flowers appear. 
With teams plowing and cattle pasturing, it would look not 
unlike the low countries of Europe, which the enterprising Dutch 
have wrested from the sea, nor unlike the prairies of Louisiana 
which our own people have reclaimed by holding the mighty 
Mississippi in its course. Although the whole body of the Ever- 
glades is considerably above sea level (Lake Okeechobee 23 
feet), the water could not escape to the sea, because of sand 
dunes and a rock rim around the edges. This rock rim, although 
usually called limestone, is in reality in many sections a calcare- 
ous sandstone, and was once no doubt mobile. It was blown 
in by the wind in the form of a dune and afterwards hardened 
into rock called .Miami o(')lite. These dunes, just as has hap- 
pened in other parts of the world, notably the Landes of 
France, choked up the rivers, caused inundation, and this in turn 
caused the formation of muck and bottled up a great mass of 

96 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

fertility for future use. Before this dune hardened many 
streams succeeded in working holes through it, and this explains 
many of the subterranean channels to the bay and ocean. This 
dune formation and wind origin of limestone ridges is no fairy 
tale. Go to Eleuthera, in the Bahamas, and other places of a 
like nature, and you will see it in all stages. 

It is worthy of note in passing that just to the west of the 
Everglades are great deposits of phosphate, the remains of sea 
animals, rich in phosphorus, the scarcest and most precious of 
plant foods, in fact, also animal foods, since foods deficient in 
it are deficient in bone-making qualities. One-third of the 
world's phosphate supply is here in Florida, and in time the 
fertility of the great agricultural soils of the world will be 
measured by the amount of phosphorus available. It is more 
than likely that phosphate beds will be found in the Everglades. 

On the south the Everglade region is bounded by a little- 
known section, usually marked on the map the Big Mangrove 
Swamp. Much of this section has never been surveyed, and 
less is really known about it than is known of Angola or Quin- 
tana Roo. On the maps the stream courses are usually marked 
with dotted lines. Some maps show White Water Bay as a big 
sheet of water ; others don't show it at all. In tliis region there 
is considerable hardwood, even mahogany, locally known as 
madeira. It is so common in one place that it furnishes the 
name "Madeira Hammock." This madeira is the true mahog- 
any, Swictcitia Mahagoni, and samples which I sent to London 
experts were pronounced first class for solid furniture and 
appeared identical in character with a specimen of mahogany, 
or Caoba, whicli was sent by the government of Mexico to the 
Paris Exposition. 

On the northwestern edge of the Everglades is the Big 
Cypress Swamp, one of the largest and finest bodies of cypress 
timber left in the South. 

The drainage work now under way and certain to be com- 
pleted within a short time, since the work is in charge of a 
competent engineer, and the contract has been let to a Baltimore 
firm accustomed to handling such big enterprises, is being paid 

97 



THE E\'ERGLADES 

for by the sale of lands. The question of drainage resolves itself 
into two factors, all a matter of digging througli mud and rock, 
opening the outlets to the sea and lowering the level of Lake 
Okeechobee. For example, suppose we have one big plate rep- 
resenting the Everglades as a whole. Inside this plate on the 
edge to one side is another very much smaller plate, represent- 
ing Lake Okeechobee. Flowing into the small plate is a large 
quantity of water from another watershed. Tlie small or Okee- 
chobee plate spills over and in the course of time the Everglade 
plate spills over its rim into the sea. I have seen the water rise 
at the south end of the Cilades without any rain or signs of rain. 
But it had rained up the State and filled to overflowing the 
Okeechobee plate. Of course, there are local rains which come 
fjuickly and heavily; in fact, there are rains called "glade 
rains." In the summer I have seen it day after day raining on 
the Glades, while the bay shore was suffering from drought. 
What passes away through underground channels and what 
passes away through evaporation and transpiration is probably 
quite equal to the preci]Mtation. and I have always believed that 
if the excess from Okeechobee could be disposed of. floods 
would be seldom and of slight duration in the Everglades. The 
rivers which run into the sea are narrow and clogged with rocky 
bottoms. Two or three streams of considerable size disappear 
on the edge of the Glades and appear again in the form of big 
springs on the edge of Biscayne Bay. 

There were attempts at drainage in times past. l)ut they did 
little good. To be sure, they lowered the water a little and 
increased the zone dry enough for cultivation around the edge 
and i)ermitted earlier cropping, but these attempts were like 
nibbles at a big project which had to be complete throughout 
and on a large scale in order to be effective. 

The late Napoleon Broward, with the eye of a practical 
man. knew good land when he saw it. and knew al.so that water 
would run clown hill. I'scd to i)ulling wrecks off reefs, he came 
to conclusions quickly anrl inluiti\cly. When some insisted that 
it would take fifteen years nf rainiall observations, several 
years of careful topograpliical surveying and the reports of 

98 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

several expensive and conflicting experts to determine tlie feasi- 
bility of his scheme, he was abashed, but not discouraged. He 
replied : "I will be dead by that time. The State will be poor 
and the money thus expended would buy a couple of dredges. 
We can sell some land to build dredges and if my friends will 
hold the knockers in check, we can soon make a convincing ocular 
demonstration." Corporate interests which had lost their grip 




A SCENE IN THE PINE LAND ON THE MAINLAND. THE PINES (P. CARIBAEA) 
IN THE BACKGROUND. THE ROAD IS CONSTRUCTED OF LIME-ROCK, ALSO THE 
FENCE. THE ROCK WAS TORN FROM THE CLEARING ON THE LEFT BY GRUB- 
BING AND BLASTING. (PHOTO BY PROF. JOHN CRAIG.) 

on these lands, of course, opposed him out of sheer bitterness, 
Ijut there were also hundreds of knockers, strange to say, among 
home people, who had nothing to lose and everything to gain, 
and who talked it down by the hour on the street corners to 
every newcomer. I remember visiting the Everglades with one 
of the first groups of newcomers from New Mexico. They had 
heard so many stories that they were skeptical. Instead of being 

99 



THE EVERGLADES 

disheartened at the sight of so much water, coming from a land 
of drought and desert, they enthused over it, and without 
exception bought, and most of them have bought and sold several 
times since. 

To Broward the credit is due. He was to Florida what 
Bremontier and Chambrelent were to I'Vance and Dalgas to 
Denmark. 




SCEXi: IN EGYPT, WHICH IS IN THE SAME LATITUDE AS SOUTH FLORIDA, WHERE 
FLAT ROOFS NOT ONLY PREVAIL, HIT WHERE THEY ARE USED AS MUCH AS 
ANY ROOM IN THE DWELLING. 

Broward possessed to a striking degree the three qualities 
that make good manhood and citizenship — he was honest, he 
had a lot of good common sense, and he had also the sense of 
liumor. Above all, he had common sense — the sense of propor- 
tions — good judgment or the ability to do the right thing in 
the right way and at the right time. He worked against jealous 
and greedy corporations, rival i)oliticians and a host of born 
knockers, but ho fought a good light, and Florida owes more to 

100 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

Broward than to any other man. In Arcachon, in the Landes 
of France, there is a statue of Bremontier, the man who added 
a new province to that RepuhHc hy the reclamation of swamp 
land. Soon there will he, prohably in Jacksonville, a monument 
to Broward, the man who was the maker of South Florida. 

I have called this the greatest conservation project in the 
United States because at the cost of about one dollar, an acre 
of land capable of producing net two hundred dollars' worth 
of vegetables annually is actually formed out of the useless mud 
sloughs. The saw-grass can be (juickly burnt and the land is 
ready for the plow, with plenty of water for irrigation pur- 
poses, if it is necessary. Compare this with the cost of any 
of our irrigation projects. Think of buying a farm and paying 
for it with the first year's crop ! Land dry enough to crop rents 
now at ten dollars per acre. 

The Chattahoochie Canal is practically done. This leads 
from Okeechobee to the Gulf. A dredge is working southward 
from Okeechobee on the main canal toward Miami. Another is 
working northward from Miami, and two are at work back of 
Fort Lauderdale, well out into the Glades. 

These are all fine, large canals and of great usefulness for 
transportation as soon as the dams are replaced by locks. Dams 
are. now necessary to hold back the water to float the dredges. 

What will grow in the Everglades is a hard question to 
answer. It would be easier to tell what will not grow there. 
Under the head of fruits there are about fifty kinds which grow 
in this region ; add to this list almost all the vegetables grown 
in the tropics and the North ; add to this many staples and 
forage crops ; many bushes and vines and three hundred or 
more useful native and introduced trees. 

As the water goes down there is left over the Glades a 
deposit of lime. This is mostly precipitated lime, which goes to 
form marl. Mixed with it are the shells of fresh-water mol- 
lusks, and in some places tons of dead fish. During the past 
summer I saw pool after pool filled with dying and putrefying 
fish, emitting an unbearable stench. Around these pools were 
hundreds of birds, buzzards, herons and crackles, all eating their 

101 



THE EVERGLADES 

fill from these charnel pits, and fighting and screaming over the 
booty. When the land is all drained these spots will have mag- 
ical fertility. 

That the Everglades will be drained within about a couple 
of years seems certain, and that people are coming here is 
already evident. Although houses to rent are scarce and board 
in the tourist season high, it is the land for the poor man. The 
climate is fine — fully as good as any Mediterranean, Caribbean 
or Californian climate. Wood is cheap for fuel and house con- 
struction. A rustic bungalow can be cheaply made and a pipe 
churned into the ground to a depth of fifteen feet or less yields 
an abundance of water. There is plenty of rock for roads, 
fences and house construction. The surrounding waters are 
famous for fish of many varieties. The inland canal route from 
Jacksonville to Key West is done. There will be miles of inland 
canals, and there is bay after bay along the shore. 

In Southern California the hand of man has produced a 
highly developed and attractive region with no resources except 
vim and climate. Obstacles were met on every hand. In South- 
ern Florida we have the resources, but the vim has been lacking. 
We have been reposing since the Seminole war. It is not lazi- 
ness. We have been indulging our love of leisure. But it is 
this grappling with nature which develops the latent forces 
within the man. The coming age is to be an age of conquest, 
the conquest of nature, the reclamation of swamp lands and 
the irrigation of deserts. 



102 



FroDi the Garden Magazine for January, ujii. 

Copyright by Doubleday, Page & Co. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE PROBLEM OF GROWING PINEAPPLES FOR 

MARKET. 




FEW years ago the pineapple was extensively 
cultivated on the coral keys of Florida. The 
natives cut the forest, burnt the wood and 
debris on the ground and planted "pines" in 
the ashes. I protested against this method 
because it destroyed the humus, and ordered 
all wood and brush burnt in piles on my land. 
^ly man, a Bahaman negro, well versed in the 
jjineapple business, insisted that the land must be "hot" for pines, 
that they needed the ashes, and that if the burning was done in a 
moist time only the surface rubbish would be destroyed. Time 
proved that he was right. These pineapple fields were weeded 
once or twice a year, no fertilizer was applied, but a heavy yield 
was secured in spite of the sparseness of the soil and the crude 
natuje of cultivation. 

But what a mess it was at harvest time ! They commenced 
to break pines in early summer. The plants were full of spines 
and more than waist high. Canvas mittens were necessary. It 
was usually hot and the mosquitoes were a pest beyond descrip- 
tion. The negroes toted the pines to the boat in baskets on 
their heads, over rough rocks along narrow, well-worn paths. 
There is uncut land left on these keys and a railroad is now in 
operation in a ])art of this region, but the pineapple business is 
practically dead. With a field of pines and a patch of lime* and 
wrecking on the side these Key people were once well-to-do and 
their lands were valuable. 

Further up the State along the East Coast there is a long 
btretch of sand dune country. It was covered with a sparse 



104 



AXD SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

growth of pine trees and the soil was naturally sterile. A bal- 
anced ration of fertilizer was applied by the pineapple growers 
and immense crops were produced, a few acres yielding a fine in- 
come. Of late, returns have been small and many growers have 
quit the business. Over in the Bahama Islands it is the same 
story. 

In Cuba there is a lot of soil especially adapted to pineapple 
culture. An owner of a young citrus grove plants pineapples 
between the trees and thus receives a quick return. The Cuban 
people are fond of the pineapple or "la piiia" as they call it. 
It is ground fine, sweetened and mixed with cracked ice. It is 
sold in tliis form at all refreshment stands and is certainly one 
of the most refreshing drinks imaginable on a hot day. If served 
throughout the United States in this way it would soon become 
popular. This would increase the consumption of this fruit to 
an enormous extent. 

One hears complaints of small returns on pines even in 
Cuba. In fact it looks like a case of overproduction. The pine- 
apple is well known in the North, is largely canned and relished 
by everybody. We import twelve million dollars' worth of 
bananas every year, but the pineapple, coming only at a special 
season and not having the filling food value of the banana, is at 
a disadvantage. The pineapple suffers severely in the process 
of transportation. It is usually picked too green. A pine is 
at its best when it ripens on the plant. A ripe pine may be 
located in the patch by the fragrance which spreads far and 
wide. A rat may have eaten one side but you will find the other 
side very delicious. 

Good drainage seems essential to the pineapple and it is no 
doubt for this reason that it does so well in sandy soil. In the 
Hawaiian Islands they grow pines on a stiff soil, the favorite 
variety being the smooth Cayenne. 

The pineapple is a strictly tropical fruit needing lots of 
warmth, and, although it will grow on sterile, sandy soil, it must 
be carefully and abundantly fed with fertilizer. The food it 
needs is rich — such as cottonseed meal, unleached tobacco dust 
and dried blood and bone. 

105 



THE EVERGLADES 

Although the pineapple is referred to as a semi air-plant, 
since it belongs with a group of epiphytes, it must have something 
more than air to live on. Water often stands in little pockets at 
the base of the leaves. In this are often the dead bodies of 
insects and it is quite likely that the plant secures some suste- 
nance in this way. It is a very shallow rooter and the roots must 
have air. I have known pineapples to actually sucker themselves 
out of the ground and have found them resting very loosel}- in 
the flufify humus which covers the rocks on the Florida Keys. 
Although I have no means of positively knowing, I believe Florida 
produces one and one-half million crates of pines a year. Cuba 
probably exceeds this amount, also the Bahama Islands. This 
places the pine in the front rank with other staple fruits. 

The Red Spanish is the chief commercial variety. It multi- 
plies well, is hardier and ships better than any other sort known 
to the writer. The Porto Rico is a close second. 

The pineapple is not seriously troubled by disease and in 
spite of the small returns it is still a favorite crop with many 
small farmers. It is easily reproduced from slips and suckers. 
Now and then a fertile seed is produced. Pines may be grown 
from rattoons which spring from the root, suckers which grow 
on the stem higher up, slips which grow at the base of the fruit, 
crown slips which grow at the base of the crown, and from the 
crown itself. In this district slips from tbe base of the fruit are 
ordinarily used. The bottom of the slip should be cut smooth 
with a sharp knife and the stem trimmed. There is less danger 
of a trouble called "tangle root." 

Canning factories use many pines, but many go to waste that 
could be easily converted into commercial alcohol. It is one o\ 
the fruits which does not lend itself to wine manufacture hut 
would probably yield a good cordial. The pineapple, it is claimed, 
contains a ferment similar to the ferment in the papaw which 
aids digestion. In the East the fil)er of the leaf is extensively 
used for cloth manufacture. This cloth is as delicate and beau- 
tiful as silk. The fiber is used for nets, thread for sewing, etc.. 
and although very line it is strong. I have often wondered wh\- 
an exteubixe industry in tlii^ line has not (levelo]ied in the West 

lor. 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

Indies. A pineapple field in dry weather, like a field of cane, is 
very combustible. 

The scientific name of the pineapple is now Ananas a)ia}ias. 
which is also a common Spanish name for the plant although 
pina is much more frequently used. I have often thought that 
ananas would be a better common name for it than pineapple. 
It is, of course, nothing like an apple and was so called probably 
because it faintly resembles in shape the pine cone. We are 
calling grapefruit, pomelo ; alligator pear, avocado ; why not call 
the pineapple ananas ? 

It appears from present conditions that in pineapple culture. 
in spite of the duty. Western Cuba has the advantage. When 
solid trainloads of pines sweep by from Cuba over the Florida 
East Coast Railway, and when his returns come in, the Florida 
pineapple grower realizes that he has a competitor to the south 
of him and that he lives at a way station on a West Indian trunk 
line. 



107 




i 



THE SUXDKUSIIA MANGO, ON'H OK TIIK l.ATliST TO KIPEN. 
( I'lKlTO liV K ALFMAN. ) 



From the Garden Magazine, February, igii. 

Copyright by Doubleday, Page & Co. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE MANGO, THE BEST OF ALL THE 
TROPICAL FRUITS. 




OME call the mango "the apple of the tropics." 
It is more; it is the apple, peach and pear 
combined. The novice in eating the old com- 
mon seedling sorts meets with difficulties. 
Such an experience is sure to prejudice him 
against mangoes forever. These old-time 
sorts have the smell and taste of turpentine 
and a tough cottony hber around their big 
seeds which completely fills the crevices between the teeth, mak- 
ing business for the dental profession. It is mushy, slippery and 
hard to hold. The juice stains the clothing. One smells and 
feels and looks as though he had been the victim of a yellow 
paint accident. After eating such a fruit for the sake of three 
or four tablespoon fuls of pulp, one must take a bath and then 
retire to some shady nook for the rest of the day to pick his 
teeth. But some of the improved sorts which sell locally at 
twenty-five cents each are quite otherwise. The skin peels ofif 
easily, the aroma is pleasant, there is no fiber, the seed is small, 
the fruit weighs twenty or more ounces and the creamy, deli- 
cious peach-like pulp melts in your mouth. I have never tasted 
a mangosteen, which, according to the books, holds the world's 
record for goodness, but of all the fruits I know, temperate and 
tropical, two" or three varieties of mangoes lead in my estima- 
tion. 

South Florida is making rapid strides in mango culture. 
Many varieties have been introduced from all parts of the tropics, 
both by the Government and enterprising growers. Many choice 

109 



THE EVERGLADES 

seedlings are just coming into fruit and our budders are learn- 
ing the trick. 

I have always contended that a Florida seedling mango will 
become the commercial mango of the future. None of the 
choice imported sorts till the bill perfectly. There is usually 
some defect, such as shy bearing, poor carrying qualities, or 
lack of resistance against pests. If the Government had im- 
ported a large cjuantity of seeds of all the best varieties of man- 
goes the world affords ten years ago, we would now have several 
new varieties of local origin which would exactly fill the bill for 
home needs and shipment North. It is possible that we have 
it anyway in the form of a seedling Mulgoba, bearing this year 
for the first time; it is too early to say. But this tree bears 
fruits of a large size, of very beautiful coloring; hard, rather 
thick skin ; no fiber ; small flat seed and delicious flavor. It re- 
mains to be seen whether it is a shy bearer or not. This is the 
fault of many of these high-grade mangoes. It is possible that 
this difficulty may be remedied by root-pruning, girdling, or by 
proper fertilizing. 

I have a little book on the mango written by Woodrow of 
India, the man who sent Mulgoba plants to Florida in 1889, 
in which over eighty varieties of mangoes are listed and this 
is ])robably not more than half of the varieties now known, 
many of which are of recent origin and many of which are no 
good. 

For instance, the Alphonse, Alphoos or Alfoss is highly 
]3rized. Fliggins thus describes it: "This is one of the most 
noted of the India mangoes. Size, medium to large ; color, 
greenish yellow on the unexposed side and running to yellow on 
the exposed side, which is overlaid with light red; peeling quali- 
ties excellent; texture excellent, may l)e readily eaten with a 
spoon ; flavor unique, with a peculiar mingling of acidity and 
sweetness in tlic l)riglit colored fruit." In looking over Wood- 
row's list, on the other hand, one runs up against all kinds 
of Alphonses. For instance : 

Afonza of Goa; Alphonze, Kirkec, "the keeping qualities of 
this fruit are excellent and it is genorall}' admitted the best of all 

110 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

mangoes. The name is al^plicd in tJic jnarkcts to >nany distinct 
sorts of greatly varied merit." (The italics are mine.) Kola- 
Alphonse ; Kagdi-Alphonse, Bombay ; Snrawini Alphonse, Bom- 
bay. In fact, it seems that whenever they found a really good 
mango they called it Alphonse. 

The Alulgoba. Cambodiana and a long yellowish kind from 
Burmah are my favorites. There is a little mango in Florida 
about the size of a peach, yellow in color, witli a beautiful ])ink 
blush on one side. It has a thin skin, no fiber antl delicious 
flavor. It is commonly called the "peach mango" and was 
raised from seed sent from Jamaica. For home use one would 
hardly wish for a more perfect fruit. 

The Khatkia, according to Woodrow, is meant to be sucked, 
while others such as Fernandino IT. of Goa are cooking mangoes. 
It should be stated to the credit of the mango that good apple 
pies can be made from the green fruit. The merits of the many 
kinds is a fruitful topic of discussion among mango cranks. 
Conclusions are not warranted as yet. It takes time to settle 
such questions. Some of the old timers with perverted tastes 
settle it by saying that the common turpentine mango is good 
enough for anybody. 

The mango belongs to a disreputable family, the Spondi- 
acese or sumac family. It is probably the most respectable of 
all its relations. It is represented in Florida by a poison tree 
(Metopium Mctopiitm) commonly called hog plum, poisonwood, 
bumwood and doctor gum. It includes the cashew nut (Ana- 
cardiiim occidentals^, the jobo, pronounced hobo, {Spondias 
Intea), and the famous pepper tree (Schinus molle) so common 
in California. 

In spite of the highly poisonous nature of many plants of 
this family, the mango is very wholesome although T have heard 
of one or two cases of "mango rash" due presumably to the 
excessive eating of this fruit. Negroes in many parts of the 
tropics practically quit work during mango season, devoting 
themselves assiduously to making the best of a good thing while 
it lasts. 

Ill 



THE EVERGLADES 

The mango is a beautiful, broad-spreading shade tree. Its 
rounded crown and dense fohage form a perfect shelter from 
the sun. It has a dark green leaf larger than, but similar in 
shape to that of the peach. It is never leafless. The young 
leaves are a beautiful pinkish red. The tree grows to be very 
large and groups of such trees around the homestead are strik- 
ing features of many tropical landscapes. 

The flowers are small but profuse and a dry winter season 
is favorable to a good crop. Some of the common mangoes 
bear heavily almost every year, the branches bending to the 
ground with the w'eight of fruit. In planting the seed it is best 
to remove the outer covering or case by carefully cutting the 
margin with a sharp knife. The seed may contain two or three 
embryos, so that is is often possible to secure two or even three 
trees from a single seed. It is a promising fruit for South 
Florida and, although it bears in the summer when peaches and 
other Xorthern fruits are in the market, it will sell on its merits; 
and besides there is the probability of keeping it in cold stor- 
age till winter, when the tourists come with plenty of money 
and good appetites for the fruits of the land. By this means, 
too. the railroads and commission men may be prevented from 
robbing the owner of the fruits of his toil. Ten years in the 
future Florida mangoes will be famous. Many local varieties 
will be developed and perfected and become as well and as 
favorably known as is the Florida standard grapefruit or pomelo. 
1 he same prediction applic:^ to the avocado or alligator pear. 



112 



From the Garden Maga::iiie. June. iQif. 



CHAPTER X\T. 
THE GUA\'A AXD Tl II-: ROSE AITEE. 

1'^ THE goat is the poor nian'> animal, the gua\a 
is his fruit. It has been called the "apple of 
M()ri(la.'" When frozen to the ground or 
burnt by fire spreading from the forest to 
grass-grown clearings, it springs Phoenix-like 
from its root, soon yielding again an abun.dani 
supply of its welcome fruit. I believe the 
guava could be dried and chea])ly shipped tn all 
parts of the world. If so, it would be the cheapest dried fruit 
on the market. Guavas fit for jelly are usually worth one cent a 
pound. 

The smell of the ripe fruit disgusts newcomers. Some time 
ago some Northern people claimed that there was a dead rat 
under their floor. The smell grew worse from day to day because 
it was all due to a guava tree by the dining room window ripen- 
ing a heavy crop of fruit. Xow the whole family is eating the 
fruit. Many are the stories told which hinge u])on the smell of 
the plel)eian l)Ut useful guava. 

W'c ha\'e a bad smelling fungus here which some people call 




fook 



A friend has suesfested that this would be an 



appropriate name for the guava. Strange, indeed, how soon one 
can become accustomed to smells which are at first nauseating. I 
lia\e heard it said that the Arab and one or two other race- can't 
stand the smell of even a clean while man. 

The odor of the gua\a and a few other trojiical fruits, such as 
the ti-es and genipaj). is mild in comparison with some cheeses. I 
have heard tliat the mangosteen, claimed b}- sonie to be the 
])rince of all fruits, ha^ at lirst a repelling odor which i'- -oon 
counteracted by the lu^ciousness of the pulp. 



114 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

The nose and the palate soon adjust themselves to strange 
smells and flavors. The first time I ever tried sour-sop-ade it 
tasted like cotton wool soaked in cider vinegar. Now it belongs 
in the same category with limeade and crushed pineapple. 

The guava, although completely distributed throughout the 
tropics in both a wild and cultivated state, is undoubtedly an 
American fruit. It has a fine name, of Indian origin, guajava 
in Spanish, agreeably shortened to guava in English. In Porto 
Rico the guava tree is always called guajava, while the term 
''guava" is applied to a large leguminous tree much used for 
shading cofTee. 

The home of the guava is probably Mexico and Central 
America ; but birds and other animals carry the seeds long dis- 
tances and. since it will grow almost anywhere in a warm climate, 
its distribution is wide. It is plentiful everywhere and countless 
varieties exist. It comes up quickly in abandoned clearings, 
which exist, strange to say, even in new countries, and when 
there is neither native nor jelly factory near, it furnishes food to 
many wild animals. I think it is generally considered the great- 
est of all jelly fruits, and guajava dulce holds a high place among 
Spanish-American peoples. The sale of this jelly brings many 
dollars to Florida, and I have seen cases of it on the platforms 
of backwoods stations consigned to almost every State in the 
Union and even to Canada and Europe. 

They say when a Northern man gets stranded in Florida he 
does usually one of three things : he opens a law office, a real 
estate office, or a jelly factory, and I know of one man who com- 
bined these three industries in the same shop ! 

In addition to the common guava there are several other 
species of the genus Psidium which yield fruits of more or less 
value. In addition, there are fifty or more species of fruits in 
South America belonging to the order Myrtace?e closely related 
to the guava which are still awaiting the skill of the horticul- 
turist. We are now trying Fcijoa Scllozviana, a guava-like fruit 
from Uruguay. The fruits are greenish, containing a rich pulp, 
and "so highly perfumed that baskets having held them will 
retain their perfume for weeks." The flowers are snowy white 

115 



THE EVERGLADES 

and crimson and the petals are edible. I believe it has fruited in 
California. My plants have flowered, but as yet have formed 
no fruit. 

The genus Eugenia alone, although it gives us the delicious 
Cayenne or Surinam cherry (Eugenia pitanga) and the rose 
apple (Eugenia Jainbos), has twenty or more fruit-yielding spe- 
cies. Closely related to the guava is the rose apple, the fruits of 
which liave sucli a sweet, rosy aroma that they are sickening to 
some people, as is the odor of the tuberose and several flowers 
in the tropics, which seem to overburden the atmosphere on 
moist, still nights. Enter a narrow tropical valley in a thicket 
of rose apple, with rose apples on the ground and rose apples in 
abundance on the trees, and it will smell the way I suppose an 
attar-of-rose factory smells. CaryophyUus Malaccensis, the large 
rose apple or Malay apple, with long, dark green leaves, white, 
purple or red flowers, and apple-odored, fine-flavored fruit, or 
the Malacca apple or the Java plum, I have not seen in Florida, 
but the rose apple is at home here and grows wnld along water 
courses in the West Indies. In fact, the rose apple {Eugenia 
fambos), called pomerosa in Spanish- American countries, has 
been planted for fuel in the neighborhood of sugar estates. For 
this purpose it is as good as eucalyptus, grows equally as fast, 
looks like an eucalypt in general appearance, but yields a fruit 
besides and seeds big enough to see and feel. The seeds of some 
eucalypts and melaleucos are so small that the slightest breath 
of wind will waft them away. Ants love to carry off these 
little seeds, so that one must have legs on the seed boxes and 
have each leg resting in a can of kerosene. Many of these fine 
seeds sprout to better advantage in the s])ecially jM-eparcd 
sprouting media sold by nurserymen than in soil. 

The rose apple and the guava have a great future before 
them, although both are strong smelling fruits, one highly sweet 
and rosy, the other foetid. 

The ti-es is another promising Florida fruit. It is meaty, 
resembling the yolk of a hard-boiled e^g,. and attractive in appear- 
ance but, like the guawi, has a smell that is sickening to some 
people. 

116 



I 



From the Everglade Magaciue, February, igii. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



RUBBER IN SOUTH FLORIDA. 




WING to the great demand for rubber and the 
high cost of it to users of rubber goods, there 
arise from time to time rubber booms and the 
formation of companies which exploit new 
fields, new rubber-yielding plants and the pock- 
etbooks of a large proportion of the confiding 
public, which to a certain extent, at least, to use 
a slang phrase, get "rubbered." There are very 
few, if any, successful planted rubber plantations in the world. 
The supply is still yielded by wild growths. 

Newcomers are always interested to know if rubber trees will 
grow in South Florida ; if rubber can be profitably extracted 
here, and if so, why someone has not been at it long ago. In 
fact, questions of this nature have been asked, and rubber trees 
of various kinds have been planted here and there in Florida for 
many years. 

One fact must be borne in mind at the start in the discussion 
of a question of this kind ; which is that rubber is rather widely 
distributed throughout the plant world, and that many plants 
contain it, but not in sufficient quantity to warrant its exploita- 
tion. It must also be borne in mind that a tree or plant which 
may be a good commercial rubber producer in one region may 
not yield sufficient in another, and the difference in the cost of 
labor may be in itself sufficient to mark the dift'erence between 
profit and loss. 

We have in South Florida two native rubber trees. One is 
Ficus aurea, called usually wild rubber; and the other is Ficns 
populnca. or wild fig. The former is a common tree in the ham- 
mocks. It starts on the limbs of other trees from seeds dropped 

117 



THE EVERGLADES 

by birds, and as it grows gradually chokes to death its host by 
sending air-roots to the ground which in time become trunks. 
This is usually called the "banyan habit," although I know of 
only one true banyan tree in Florida. This came from India, but 
is similar to and closely related to our native rubber. 

In addition to the above, we have several introduced species 
of Ficus. These trees contain rubber, but not in sufficient quan- 
tity or of such quality as to prove a profitable commercial ven- 
ture in a land where labor is as scarce and expensive as in 
Southern Florida. This applies to fiber manufacture and many 
other industries which might be successfully operated had we 
an abundance of very cheap labor. Americans usually get over 
this difficulty by using labor-saving machinery, and I have not 
the slightest doubt but that some day, in case rubber is not syn- 
thetically manufactured from cheaper and more abundant mate- 
rials, even small quantities will be extracted by machinery from 
many of the small plants which contain it. 

The famous Para Rubber {Hevea Bracilcnsis), the Panama 
rubber (Castilloa elastica), and the Ceara rubber (Manihot Gla- 
cioi'ii), have all been planted here, and will grow here, but they 
do not flourish, and I doubt if they can ever be successfully prop- 
agated here. Of these three, the Ceara rubber grows best, and 
it is barely possible that this species may be successfully grown 
in large plantations in regions free from frost, since it does not 
require a rich soil and grows in dry. sandy or rocky lime- 
stone regions. In all the rubber-yielding plants mentioned above, 
the process of rubber extraction is by means of tapping — that is, 
various incisions in the trunk from which the sap flows, and is 
collected in some kind of a receptacle placed ready to receive it. 

Of late years, however, there has developed another way 
Out in Northern Mexico there grows a low bush on the desert 
called "Gayule." Land on which Gayule grew could once be 
had for the asking. Now it is held high, because this bush is 
collected in bundles or bales and shipped to the factory, where 
the rubber is extracted from it. 1 liavo no doul)! but that this 
plant woukl grow on the rocky lands of Dade County, since it 

118 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

grows in regions of little rainfall and in a climate which is at 
times much colder than ours. 

Of late, however, I have heen interested in several ruhher- 
yielding vines. These are highly ornamental and worthy of culti- 
vation simply as an adornment to any home, hut if planted along 
fences I believe they could be cut to the ground each year, and 
from the enormous amount of leaves and twigs and stems which 
they develop rubber could be extensively extracted in a way simi- 
lar to the Gayule industry of the deserts of Mexico. 

One of these vines is native to South Florida. It grows in 
great masses on the shores of Biscayne Bay and on the Keys. It 
grows to the very tops of the mangrove trees and runs from 
ground to limbs in twisted, rope-like masses. The twigs and 
even the leaves are full of sticky milk. This vine is called Rhab- 
dadcnia biflora. It grows on muddy shores of South Florida and 
the West Indies, and according to Grisebach's Flora (p. 406), 
this species is a source of rubber in Jamaica. In this work it is 
called Echitcs palndosa, the old name for Rhabdadcnia biflora. 
It belongs to the dogbane family, and its juice is probably poi- 
sonous. It is closely related to the Oleander and Allamanda and 
Crape Jessamine and other beautiful ornamentals. The flowers 
of Rhabdadenia are white, the foliage is a dark, lustrous green, 
and the vine may be easily propagated by layering or cuttings in 
moist, mucky soil. 

The best of all rubber vines for South Florida is probably 
Cryptostcgio grandiflora. This grows well in South Florida, 
although it comes from the Far East. This vine is being planted 
in the Bahama Islands, and the Board of Agriculture of the 
Bahamas reports that samples of rubber from this vine were 
shipped to New York and that the rubber it produced was pro- 
nounced of very fine cjuality. One report of the Curator of the 
Botanic Station at Nassau says : 

'T hope to make experimental trials of the yield by cutting 
down the young shoots almost to the ground, then crushing the 
stems between rollers. Recent microscopical examination of the 
bark shows that the milky juice, or 'latex,' is contained in the 
pith of the young shoots, and in the middle layer of the bark, in 

119 



THE EVERGLADES 

a network of minute tubes known as lactiferous vessels. These 
vessels run for the most part longitudinally in the plant tissues, 
forming a closed and connected system. 

'T am positive it is well worth the while of all large proprie- 
tors to interest themselves in the rubber vine industry. It proves 
itself to be hardy and easily cultivated ; it can be handled w^ith 
ease and grows rapidly; produces a first-class rubber, second 
only, when well prepared, to the best Para rubber." 

This is a beautiful ornamental vine of the milkweed family, 
and produces many seeds, from which young plants may be 
raised without any particular difficulty. With the new system 
of rubber extraction, I cannot see why they cannot be cut down 
each year, or perhaps oftener. 

I believe a vine will yield more stems, twigs and leaves on the 
same piece of land, in the same length of time than will an herb, 
shrub or tree. The main source of African rubber for years has 
been from vines — various species of the Genus Landolphia. 
Then, there is not the wait of many years for a yield, as is the 
case with rubber trees. 

In the farm of the future I believe horsepower is going to be 
gradually displaced by motor power, and that alcohol from waste 
fruits, etc., will furnish the power. Of almost similar impor- 
tance is rubber for tires, unless rubber can be replaced by some 
other material or the amount used reduced by imurovements in 
construction of wheels and springs, or the price of rubber low- 
ered. I believe the high cost of rubber is due mainly, not to a 
scarcity of the product as much as to a colossal graft. It is still 
mainlv a wild and not a cultivated industry. While the automo- 
bile served mainly the pleasures of the rich it litllc mattered, but 
now that these vehicles are becoming a necessity to the general 
public, the cost of tires is a matter of general concern, and the 
])roduction of rubber a national question. 

If some ingenious chemist does not succeed in making ruljber 
out of some cheap product, let us hope that the Southern farmer 
may some dav haul tons of rubber-yielding materials to tlie mill 
from h.is fields and tluis '-hare in small ])art. at least, in tlic many 

120 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

millions which go to the millionaire magnates of New York and 
Newport and the smoky-colored natives of the tropical rubber 
jungles to the south of us. 

Only a few days ago I pointed out to a Japanese gentleman 
from Formosa some rubber vines, and was surprised to 
see how quickly he photographed the plant and collected roots 
for shipment to Japan by the first mail. Who knows but these 
enterprising Orientals may not be some day shipping us rubber 
from a plant, found in Florida, growing rampant under our 
very noses. 

In our modern rush and tumble we often fail to see the good 
things we actually stumble over. Maybe the vines in our woods 
which impede our way, which are recklessly cut with the machete, 
and which besmirch our clothes with a sticky gum, contain in 
abundance the very stuff we need on the tires of our wagons and 
the soles of our shoes. 

How valuable these vines are as rubber producers is, of 
course, a question awaiting solution. It is just like a thousand 
other similar propositions in South Florida and the Tropics in 
general. 

P. S. — A recent careful chemical analysis of Rhabdadcnia. bi- 
flora twigs and leaves gathered in South Florida seems to indicate 
that this plant does not contain sufificient rubber to warrant its 
cultivation for that purpose. It belongs to the Apocynaccae or 
Dogbane family, an order of plants which yield rubber of more 
or less value throughout the world. The following plants belong 
to this order and are classed as rubber yielders : 

Actinella Richardsonii, Colorado Rubber; Anodcndroii pani- 
culata, a liana of the East Indies; Carpodinus lanccolata, Root- 
rubber, Central African climber; Clitandra Hcnriqucsiaiia, Root- 
rul)ber, an erect shrub of Central Africa; Ecdysanthcra (/laiidii- 
lifcra, a climber of Cambodia; Forsteronia floribiinda, milk-vine 
of Jamaica ; Forsteronia (jracUis, a liana of British Guiana ; Hau- 
cornia spcciosa, Mangaberia Rubber; LandoIpJiia florida, Mozam- 
bicjue Rubber; Landolphia Kirkii, Zanzibar Rubber; Landolphia 
ozi'aricnsis, Congo or Sierra Leone Rubber; LandolpJiia Pctcrs- 
iaiia. East African Rul)ber; Lciicoiwtis clastica, Borneo; Mas- 

121 



THE E\'ERGLADES 

carcnhasia clastica, a tree of Madagascar; Pnramcria glandnlifera, 
Talaing Milk Creeper, a Malayan liana; Tabcrnamontana crassa, 
a tree of Central Africa; Urcccola elastica, a climber of Burma; 
ll'Uhighbeia finna, Borneo Rubber, a large liana. Liana, or liane, 
is a term applied to many climbing tropical plants with woody, 
rope-like stems ascending to the tops of the tallest trees or run- 
ning long distances on the ground. The above list of rubber- 
yielding plants of the Dogbane family is copied from Macmillan's 
"Tropical Gardening" to aid any person who cares to introduce 
and experiment with these rubber-yielding species in S(^uth 
Florida. 



122 




UEARIXG COFFEE TREE, UNITED STATES EXPERI MEXTAI. STATION, MIAMI. 



Prom the llicr^^ladc M aiiaziuc. \' ofonhcr, n^ll. 



cil\i'ti-:r wjii. 

COFFEE A\D \AXILLA IX SOUTH FLORIDA. 




U\ a sunimer home I \\<iul(l wanl ni)thii\i;- bet- 
ter than a cotYce ])lantati()n in the West Inthes 
111- Mexico. They are usually at some eleva- 
tion, in delightful wooded distriet>. and in 
themseh'es. irrespective of their surroundings, 
are -o Ijeautiful that they have few if any 
rivals. A coffee ])lantation is on a par with 
the finest cherrv orchard or orange grove that 
I have ever seen. The rich, dark green foliage, the profuse, fra- 
grant white blossoms and the great masses of rich, red cherry- 
like berries is a coml)ination seldom found in a single plant 
Add to this the ])icttu'es(jue Indians, the long mule teams, the 
winding trails and a host of other ])leasant memories aufl pic- 
tures, including, of coiu'se. the satisfying effects of a good cuj) 
of coffee when you are tired an;) luuigry. 1 say "hungry," 
because a cup of coffee is rather a hunger than thirst satistier. 

I have listened to many planters and lia\e diligently read lit- 
erature on coffee cultiux and am, al)o\e all. impressed with the 
great variance of oi)inon and the many a])parent coiUradictions 
on the subject. 

1 have heard it said that coffee must lia\"e elevation, that cof- 
fee must be shaded, that coffee demands a rich, deep soil, etc., 
etc. All such statements can be easily refuted since coffee has 
been grown and is growing in man\- ])laces close to sea level, is 
grown without shade (is, in fact, a sun lover), and in soil which 
is neither rich nor deep — in fact, in many instances in soil which 
is very poor in (juality. 

As to elevation, it requires no very great stretch of the imag- 
ination to regard the earth as two mountains, base to base at the 



124 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

equator, with the poles for their summits. Moving nortliward 
or southward toward the frost hne from the equator heing simi- 
lar in effect to ascending a mountain in the Torrid Zone, the lati- 
tude of South Plorida or of Southern Brazil and Paraguay pro- 
duces conditions not unlike those obtained by ascending a moun- 
tain in the Torrid Zone to an elevation close to the frost line. 

. This much can be said, however, that coffee, like almost all 
other plants, grows better if protected by windbreaks, grows 
better if the soil is rich and deep, grows better if there is an 
abundance of w^armth and moisture, especially during the season 
while the fruit is forming, and, like all other tropical plants, must 
have a frostless climate. 

It never pays to say that coffee will not grow in a certain 
place until you have tried it — in fact, until you have given it a 
fair trial, because it is not easily started and does not enjoy being 
transplanted from place to place. 

Here in South Florida we have always taken it for granted 
that certain things would not grow. We began by trying many 
of the things which do so well in Southern California. Our rainy 
season comes in the summer time, and the things which seemed 
to me most promising here are those which come from South 
Brazil and Paraguay, or from mountain regions in the tropics 
close to the frost line. 

Coffee grows well in West Cuba, which is only a short dis- 
tance to the south of us, with practically the same climate and 
same natural flora. 

Coffee trees, here and there one or two. have been planted in 
South Florida for some time and some have fruited heavily, but 
the row of trees now growing in the Miami Experimental Gar- 
dens looks so vigorous and is so full of berries that I could not 
refrain from photographing a sample tree and from calling the 
attention of plant lovers to the fact that real coffee can be, and 
is inm' being, produced in the mainland of the United States of 
America. The illustration shows the berries in abundance, but 
these are only half grown. When mature this mass of fruit will 
weight the slender branches to the ground. There will be coffee 
enough on these trees to supply a White House banf|uet. I pre- 

125 



THE EVERGLADES 

Slime the majority of these berries should be used for seed, so 
that we may have home-grown plants from home-grown seeds. 

CofYee jirobably will never become a staple product for 
Florida, but there is no reason why every family south of Fort 
Lauderdale should not have a tree or two. If one has a house 
with a central open court, coffee will grow in it. and it would 
be difficult to find a small tree or bush more ornamental in nature 
and better fitted for such a purpose. 




VA.Nli.I.A SlIKl), IMTKIi STATKS KX I'EKI M l-I.NTAL STATKl.N. MIAMI. 

There is growing in our hanniiocks a bush or small tree called 
"Wild Coffee" (Psyclwtria uudata Jacq). It resembles true coft'ee, 
belongs to the same taniih- and is, I ha\'c been told, rich in 
caft'einc. This last mentioned drug enters extensively into tlope 
drinks, and there are many peo])le wlio place cofi'ee in the same 
class; but the ])erson wlio goes wrong from drinking good coft'ee 
in moderation woidd ])rol)ably go wrong anyway. 

In the case ot" vanilla it is dift'erent, l)ecause \anilla is native 
here, and when a thing i> nali\e there can be no (|nestion as to its 

126 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

adaptability. Chapman, years ago, listed it in his Flora of the 
Southern United States as I'anilla planifolia, the commercial 
vanilla. Small in his recent work gives it the same name, 
although I believe of late the Florida form has received a distinct 
specific name. Although it may differ a little from the Central 
American and Mexican forms, it is vanilla just the same, form- 
ing the same rich-smelling pods. 

It is a succulent green vine with small leaves, if not at times 
almost leafless. Its snaky green stems, about the size of one's 
finger, are supported by aerial roots which cling to the bark of 
trees. It ascends to the tree tops and is almost epiphytic — in fact, 
I think wholly so when its aerial roots have sufficient hold on 
soft-barked trees. 

It is an orchid and bears flowers of that same grotesque, 
attractive type which characterizes the great orchid family. The 
accompanying illustration shows a part of the vanilla shed in 
the Miami Experimental Gardens. Several forms of vanilla from 
various parts of the world are assembled here. 

But with many of these things, such as coffee and vanilla 
and other attractive tropical plants, there is little hope for profit 
in South Florida, not because they will not grow, but because we 
have no cheap, semi-slave labor such as they have in many parts 
of the tropics, where men, women and children work long hours 
for very little, have but very little, and seem to need but very 
little. They seem happy in their blissful ignorance — in fact, 
their happiness is due mainly to ignorance. The morose and 
thoughtful workers are usually the ones to whom these burdens 
are most irksome. 

It i- diflicnit for Americans to fully comprehend the meaning of 
peonage. I once rented a cottage for the summer on a coffee plan- 
tation in Porto Rico. Here and there were the huts of the natives. 
They had never lived or worked elsewhere. They seemed like a 
part of the real estate. They would do their accustomed tasks 
and take what they could get for their services. Their pay 
amounted to the cost of the rice and salt fish which they con- 
sumed. The rest of their food was picked up here and there 
on the plantation. Of course, these conditions are changing, in 

127 



THE EVERGLADES 

fact have changed in Porto Rico, and will soon, no doubt, begin 
to change in Mexico and Central America. But if South Florida 
had many other advantages favorable to the culture of coffee 
and vanilla it could not compete with countries where labor is 
still under the yoke and where men are paid with promises or 
with the barest necessities of life, which are in some tropical 
countries away down to the severest minimum. 



128 



I 



From the Everglade Magazine, March, igu. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



FRUIT QUALITY IN SOUTH FLORIDA. 




T IS unquestionably true that the fruits and 
vegetaljles produced in South Florida, both on 
"glade and pine land, have exceptional quality. 
J!y quality is meant not only good flavor and 
color and shape, but also firmness, so that they 
carry well long distances, in s[)ite of the hard 
usage to which they are usually subjected in 
transit. 

It is, of course, true that we have excellent selected varieties, 
and that our expert plant propagators have' bred for (|uality as 
well as quantity of yield. It is also true that the distance a fruit 
will carry depends upon the way it is packed and the number of 
times and the manner in which it is handled before it reaches the 
consumer. All except the railroads are beginning to realize that 
a fruit is a living thing even after it leaves the plant. It does not 
die until long after it is picked. If wounded by careless treat- 
ment it soon perishes. The germs of decay enter the injured 
parts and the complete death and ruin of the fruit is only a 
matter of a very short time. 

Aside from the skill of our plant breeders and the care exer- 
cised in the handling of the products of the soil, the fruits and 
vegetables of South Florida have a quality of sweetness and 
firmness due, I believe, in the main to the climatic conditions of 
the region. 

Although we have a rainfall fully equal in quantity to many 
other regions and quite sufficient to support a heavy vegetation, 
it comes in a bunch, is not evenly distributed throughout the year, 
and, although it is not always so, the winters are usually clear 
and very dry. The conditions are therefore droughty, because 

129 



THE EVERGLADES 

a rainfall to be effective must be evenly distributed throughout 
the year, regardless of its quantity. Our heaviest rainfall comes 
in the summer and fall, just the time when the majority of our 
crops are cultivated with the least success. Tender crops are 
beaten to the ground by the pelting force of the rain and wind, 
and ;), hard sliower suddenly followed by a hot sun often does 
mischief rather than good. Another factor is the wind. The 
prevailing winds are from the east, and in spite of the fact that 
they come over miles of ocean, they are dry. It seems strange 
to speak of "dry ocean winds," but we have them throughout the 
American tropics. Everybody knows who has lived long in this 
region that througliout the winter, fogs and mists are very rare, 
and that wet clothes hung out in the wind from the east or south 
dry in a very few minutes. I have known workmen to jump 
overboard witli their clothes on, then take them off, wring 
them out, ])ut them on again, and in a few minutes they 
would be dr}-. Along the seashore in the North clothes thus 
treated would remain damp and clammy for a whole day. Last 
fall we had a dry hurricane from the South. Although this 
wind came over miles of ocean, it was so dry that tender vegeta- 
tion was blackened and ])arched. Its effect was similar to the 
Chinook wind of the Northwest or the mistral of South Euro])e. 
Even such weeds as the Spanish needle w^ere killed, and the ten- 
der tips of many trees withered and dried up. 

Yucatan is almost surrounded by water, but much of it is 
desert. The south shores of Cuba, Santo Domingo and Porto 
Rico are almost desert-like in winter. In fact, in these countries 
niontlis pass without rain. The same is so of South Florida 
and the lialiamas, but to less extent. Two months have just 
passed ])ractically without rain. One clear day usually follows 
anotlier fmni October to June, and T ha\-e known workmen to 
lose not more tlian two days in a whole winter in consequence 
of bad weather. 

Another ])oint i^ that we ha\e cool nigiits in winter, and 
sometimes a temperature close to the frost point. ( )nce in a 
while it dio]is a little below the fiost point and injures tender 
vegetables here and there. I doubt if an\ ]iart of I'dorida has 

L30 



AND S0UTHP:RN FLORIDA 

been absolutely free from slight touches of frost. 1 presume 
some of the keys have not been touched, at least within the last 
ten years. These touches are slight, so slight, in fact, that tender 
tropical fruits are not injured, and I truly believe that a little frost 
is a blessing in disguise. It is always safe to assume that some- 
body to the north of us is getting more of it — in fact, too much 
of it — and, as I am about to explain, this check due to dryness 
and coolness in winter is what gives sweetness and firmness to 
our fruits and vegetables. 



POLE OR-MOUNTAIN TOP 



FROST LINE 




ZONES IN WHICH BEST 
EQUATOR ) FLAVORED TROPICAL 
FRUITS ARE PRODUCED 

FROST LINE 



-POLE OR MOUNTAIN TOP 

DIAGRAM OF EARTH ZONES. 



In short, the dry atmosphere and the coolness of winter check 
vegetative growth, increase productivity, give a periodicity to 
the crop and cause the formation of sugar with less acid and 
water. Sugar is a great preservative. It is, in fact, antiseptic. 
Cool nights produce sweet oranges. 

Go to any coast town in the tropics and buy good fruit. Ask 
where it was produced and the answer will be, "up in the hills." 
In regions of abundant warmth and moisture throughout the year 
there is excessive vegetative growth, a small crop of fruit of poor 
quality. Fruit quality is easily influenced. For instance, the fruit 
of a young, quick-growing pomelo is usually thick-skinned and 
full of rag, and the same is so if this fruit is from a June blossom. 



131 



THE E\'ERGLADES 

In the tropics it is often necessary to girdle trees to produce 
bloom. It is quite the custom to drive spikes into and hack the 
trunks of cocopalms to make them bear. A hurricane is usually 
followed by a good fruit year. Trees in the forest usually have 
a heavy seed year after their butts have been scorched by a bush 
fire. ^Mangoes bear best if the winter is dry, and root pruning is 
often practiced to force them into fruit. Trees well pruned are 
the best fruit producers. An unpruned grapevine is almost use- 
less except for ornament. All these things act as checks to 
vegetative growth, and it is a law of nature that everything 
strives to reproduce its kind under adversity. 




ZONE IN WHICH BEST 
FLAVORED TROPICAL 
FRUITS ARE PRODUCED 



-FROST LINE 



A TROPICAL MOUNTAIN 



EQUATOR _^ 



IJIAGKAM OF ZONES ON MOUNTAINSIDE. 

It is usually supposed that colTee must be grown high up in 
the hills in the tropics. Colifee will grow at sea level in many 
jjlaces and although it is regarded as a tender tree, even in the 
tropics, it fruits well at the Experimental station in Miami. The 
same applies to vanilla, one species of which is native to South 
Florida. 

The olive grows well in Suuth b'lorida, but docs not fruit. 
The navel orange grows well in South Florida and the tropics, 
but bears best in California, where it is most prolific. The Mul- 
goba mango grows in South Florida in great luxuriance, but is 

132 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

a shy bearer. Some of these things are hard to explain, but I 
believe the conditions here, in spite of our dryness and coolness 
in winter, are still too favorable; and like many rich men's sons, 
some trees are too prosperous to be fruitful. 

Wherever I have been in the tropics I have been impressed 
with the fact that right under the frost line is the place where 
the best fruit is produced and the most of it, and where other 
conditions— social, etc. — are at their best. I am also convinced 
that in about latitude 26, which is the latitude of South Florida, 
we get practically the same conditions and effects that are secured 
by ascending a mountain in the Torrid Zone to a point just under 
the frost line. 

Suppose we have a mountain on the equator ; if several thou- 
sand feet high, we would pass in going from sea level to the top 
through the tropical, austral and boreal zones. Just where the 
tropical blends into the austral (other conditions being favorable) 
you would probably find the best fruit region. 

In the same way we may regard the earth as two mountains 
placed base to base. The best fruit district on these mountains 
would likewise be (other conditions being favorable) right under 
the frost line, where the tropical and austral zones meet. This 
spot is about 26 degrees, which is the latitude of South Florida. 

Therefore, treating the earth as two mountains, base to base, 
I cannot see why we should not expect all plants that grow well 
in the tropics up to the frost line to grow equally well in South 
Florida, with a few exceptions. 

Over a mountain side in the tropics we have many advantages, 
especially nearness to market and quickness in transit, since in 
many cases, even in the West Indies, it is a longer journey in 
time from the hills to the coast than from Florida to the great 
consumption centers of the North. 

There are thousands of useful plants in the mountains of the 
tropics of the world which should be introduced and fairly tried 
in Florida. Posterity will have something to do in this line for 
centuries to come. 

It very often happens that a plant introduced into a new 
region does better than in its native land. Several z^merican 

133 



THE E\'ERGLADES 

trees do better in Europe than in this country. Being introduced 
into a new land, tliey often escape their old enemies. A large 
percentage of our useful plants have come from the far East. 
There are thousands more in Africa, Australia and South 
America. 

It is impossible to say what will grow here until many trials 
have been made, but of the fruits and vegetables now produced 
here the quality is uniformly good. Take the common tomato, 
originally from the highlands of Mexico, for example. In the 
North in the summer it is usually watery and acid. It is, in fact. 
a vegetable, and is not palatable unless cooked or covered with 
condiments. In South Florida it is firm and sweet, may be 
eaten out of the hand, and is, in fact, a fruit. 

And although we have insect and fungus pests enough, we 
have not the variety or quantity that exist in the regions south of 
us, close to the sea coast, with muggy Turkish-bath atmospheres. 

The very luxuriance of many tropical regions is their main 
drawback. In many such places man vegetates, also. Even 
with plants, fruitfulness is increased by slight checks or obstacles. 
It is so throughout the whole living world. There can be no 
victory without a ])attle. Newcomers must not think that our 
problems have been solved or that the stage of experimentation 
is over, or even well under way. It has hardly begun. Only 
fifteen years ago our natives believed that fruits and vegetables 
could not be grown here. They lived on sea truck and the starch 
of a wild sago called comptie or koonti. Now millions of crates 
of fruits and vegetables leave this region by the carload. The 
production as to kind and (juantity fifteen years hence is tlie 
purest kind of guesswork, but judging from the character of 
what is nfnv produced, it would be safe to wager on its quality. 



134 



From the Everglade Magazine, June, igii. 



CHAPTER XX. 



NEW ROOTS FOR OLD TREES. 




N SOUTH FLORIDA and the West Indies 
there is here and there a citrus grove which is 
sick and unproductive. In many cases this is 
due, of course, to improper care, insufficient 
fertiHzer or moisture or unsuitahle soil. In 
some instances, however, there are sick trees 
on good soil and in groves which are well con- 
ducted. These trees are often in the midst of 
healthy, heavily producing neighbors. 

In my experience I find the soil not so important as one might 
suppose. Good, healthy trees are growing on all kinds of soil in 
South Florida — by this I mean marl, muck, hammock, sand or 
rock soils. Supply a citrus tree with the proper amount of 
water and the proper amount and kind of fertilizer, and give it 
the proper amount of cultivation, and it will grow and produce 
on any of the above-mentioned soils. It requires, of course, 
more fertilizer, water and cultivation to produce a good tree 
on some soils than others. 

In spite of the soil and care bestowed on citrus trees, there are 
now and then sick ones, and now and then whole groves which 
have been, and continue to be, in a languishing condition. When 
one sees a sick tree he usually condemns the soil ofif-hand, and 
many a good piece of land has been thus unfairly abandoned. 
When a citrus tree which receives the proper amount of moisture, 
fertilizer and cultivation, becomes subject to insect and fungus 
pests there is often something fundamentally, physiologically 
wrong. It is very often the case that these pests are not the 
direct cause of the illness, but are a consequence. If a tree has 
the proper vitality it seldom falls a prey to pests. 

135 



THE EVERGLADES 

One of the main troubles, if not the main trouble, is with the 
stock on which the tree is budded. Different localities require 
different stocks. Suppose I am about to start a grove in Cuba 
and I order from a nurseryman, pomelo or rough lemon stock. 
Being a new region I may not be certain that rough lemon stock 
is the best for that particular locality. I am also not certain 
that I am getting the stock I order. Just as a merchant may 
hand a five, ten or fifteen-cent cigar out of the same box, so do 
some nurservmen give you whatever is ordered from the same 
bed of trees. 




STOCK 
_EV EL OF GROUND) 



DIAGRAM SHOWING HOW THE PART ABOVE THE BUD UNION HAS OUTGROWN 

THE STOCK. 

In examining many sickly trees in the West Indies and 
Florida, I have found that the sick ones are invariably on roots 
which the tops have outgrown. For instance, it is common to 
find trees with diameters twice as big above the bud as below it. 
It does not require an expert to see that such a condition cannot 
help but affect the nutritive processes of the tree, and that a tree 
with such a constriction at its butt might easily die of starvation 
in the presence of plenty of fertilizer and moisture. There is 
not the proper balance between top and root. It is, therefore, 
highly important to secure a stock that grows at the same rate 
as the bud in the special locality in which your grove is located. 
In other words, the kind of stock must be decided by experience 



136 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

for each locality. In South Florida (on certain soils) the best 
stock for pomelo is rough lemon. Pomelo on lime stock pro- 
duces a fine quality of fruit, but the grapefruit soon outgrows it 
and the top commences to die back and fall subject to disease. 
The tangerine does very well on lime stock in this district and I 
presume the tangelo, a famous new fruit, being a cross be- 
tween the pomelo and tangerine, will also thrive on lime roots. 

In South Florida there are many groves on the wrong kind of 
stock and many growers have begun to shift their trees onto new 
roots. This shifting of an old tree to new roots in a very short 




k/ KEY 
A -NEW UNIONS 
B -TOPS OF NEW 
TREES WHICH ARE 
CUT OFF WHEN 
UNION IS COMPLETE 
C -OLD STOCK 
D -POMELO 
E -OLD UNIONS 



^/£V£Z. OF 



^I^OUNO 



INARCHING REINFORCING A TREE WITH NEW ROOTS. 

time has always appealed to me as a great horticultural triumph, 
just as building a new bridge in place of an old one without dis- 
turbing traffic is a triumph of engineering skill. The process 
is so simple, however, that almost anyone can do it. In fact, 
some growers are practicing it just to stimulate their trees and 
brace them against storm by extra rootage. The process is in 
brief as follows : 

Plant two or three or as many small trees as you like of the 
kind of stock desired close to the old tree. As soon as they are 



137 



THE EVERGLADES 

firmly rooted and growing, abrade the surfaces at the point of 
contact and they will soon unite with the old tree and help feed 
it. The place of union should, of course, be bound by wax and 
tape until the union is complete. The tops of the young trees 
may then be cut off. As soon as the young stems have reached 
considerable size the old root may be severed, but it does no 
injury and is usually left. This process of rootage reinforce- 
ment may be used at any time to give vigor to old trees. It is 
like putting new legs on an old man. 

The quality of the fruit may be thus influenced also. It is 
usually said by horticulturists that the class of fruit produced by 
a bud remains always true to the bud and is not influenced by the 
stock. Every grower in this district fully realizes that if the 
same pomelo is budded on rough lemon and lime stock the fruit 
from the bud on lime stock will differ not only in appearance, 
but in flavor from the bud on rough lemon stock. The two trees 
may be set side by side. The fruit from the lime stock is 
smaller and cleaner, in fact better in flavor and texture, and 
many would use lime stock were it not for the fact that the 
pomelo outgrows it and the lime is not a deep rooter. 

It is also said that the quality and appearance of a fruit is 
not modified by the pollen from neighboring trees of the same 
genus. Unless I am very much mistaken, the quality of limes 
grown amongst rough lemons is inferior from the contamination 
of the lemon j^ollen. The fruit is larger, coarser, and has a 
rougher skin. Cut away the lemons and an im])rovemont is 
noticeable. 

This seems true also of the mango. T know of one Mulgoba 
mango close to a common fibrous turpentine mango. The years 
when they bloomed at the same time the Afulgoba fruit was oft' 
color, string}'^ and poor in quality. The years when they did 
not bloom together or when the bloom from the tur]icntine mango 
was cut away the Mulgoba bore normal I'ruil. altliough few in 
number. 

It is often the case tliat choice mangoes and other valuable 
tropical fruits are budded on stock which has been kei)t t(^o long 
in i)ots. The\- have become, in fact, pot-bound and ha\e a main 

138 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

root which is the shape of a corkscrew. These roots seldom 
recover from this condition, and in spite of all the attention you 
may give the plant it will slowly go back on you. The top is 
too valuable to lose, yet the part above the union seldom grows 
into a healthy tree with a corkscrew root. The only way out is 
to plant a healthy seedling near it and then in-arch the top on the 
new root. 




.V COKKSCKKW ROOT. 



One of the main troubles with trees, anyway, is the main- 
tenance of a proper balance between root and crown. It is 
always difficult to know just how much to prune. Pruning 
favors the root for a time, but if the root is unable to nourish 
the top die-back begins, and the sooner the old tree is reinforced 
or supplied with new roots the better. 

139 



THE EVERGLADES 

The effects of the wrong kind of stock do not begin to show 
seriously until the tree is of some size — in fact, of good bearing 
age. It is too valuable to lose, and although men spend much 
time and money doctoring such trees by spraying, etc., it would 
pay at the start to give it a new root. Some men think their 
trees are all on rough lemon stock because their nurseryman said 
so, but it always pays to know; and the only way to be sure is 
to let the stock sucker from the root, and the leaves and spines 
in the sucker will usually tell the tale. 

By examining the leaves of some suckers in a grove which 
was not prospering, we found pomelo on sour orange stock and 
on Sicily lemon and on lime stock, and we found orange on 
pomelo roots. A grove near by on rough lemon was in a flour- 
ishing condition. On other soils and in other localities, the 
reverse might be the case. 

I can easily imagine the bewilderment of the young planter 
when he first discovers that the sweet orange is budded on the 
sour orange root, orange on lemon, lemon on orange, orange on 
pomelo, pomelo on orange, pomelo on lemon, tangerine on lime, 
pomelo on lime, lime on lemon, etc., etc. It would be sane to 
suppose that a plant would grow best on its own root, but the 
truth is. some varieties of citrus do better on one kind of root 
in one district and another kind of root in another district, and 
there is nothing more important than learning from your own 
or other people's experience the kind of stocks best suited for 
the special district in which your grove may be located. But 
look to the root — upon the character of the root depends the 
character of your tree. 

When the young man dreams of golden fruits and golden 
dollars in the land of sunshine, he must not forget that there 
are many little things to learn, the failure of any one of which 
may break his hopes and Ijank account, if nut liis back. 



140 



A 



From the Everglade Magasine, August, igii. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

HOW TO GET A LOT OF WORK OUT OF A SMALL 

WINDMILL. 




HE windmill and well need no description in 
this connection, since they are both as simple as 
possible in this section. Wind is steady and 
almost constant and water is almost always 
close to the surface, so that the lift is short 
and the power required light. 

The tank (see page 142) consists of rein- 
forced concrete set on six concrete posts. It is 
twice as long as wide and is divided into two parts, marked tank 
A and tank B. The tank should be plastered on the inside with rich 
cement mortar to which some air-slacked lime has been added. The 
air-slacked lime in small quantity in the mortar produces a tighter 
coating and helps to prevent leakage. The space under the tank 
may be used for laundry or other purposes. The mill pumps 
into tank A. When tank A is full up to the connecting pipe 
"B," the water flows into tank B. Tank B is covered with a 
glass sash, so that the sun warms this water and keeps it at a 
pleasant temperature for bathing purposes. When tanks A and 
B are full up to the top of the siphon "A," the contents of tank A 
rush out with force into irrigation pipes, horse or chicken 
troughs, fountains, etc. As soon as tank A is empty, the flow 
stops and does not commence again until the tanks are full. 
When the tanks are full it rushes out again until tank A is empty. 
By this scheme of duplex tanks and siphon one may have a con- 
stant supply of warm water on the principle of the solar heater 
for house use and at the same time a constant automatic flush for 
irrigation and general watering purposes. I have heard it said 
by experienced parties that a windmill arranged with siphon 

141 



THE EVERGLADES 

tank, so that there is a strong flush at regular intervals, will sub- 
irrigate three acres of land. 

Where it can be successfully worked, subirrigation through 
loose tiles is in my opinion the best of all methods. 

In fact, as is done at San ford, these tiles may be brought 

together at the end so that in wet weather they will serve as 

drain tiles. Tile for this purpose may be cheaply constructed at 

home from sand and cement. 



GLASS SASH 



SIPHON A 



TANK B „ 
WARM WATER 



r-.4x=f 



I 



c^ 



V7y 



M 



TANK 
A 




WARM WATER 
PIPE 



TO HOUSE AND 
tpiPE FOR IRRIGATION . ^^TH ROOM 

WATERING TROUGH 
AND FOUNTAIN. 
C IS A SPIGOT 

niAt.KAM (IK A WI.Nll.Mll.l. AMI TANK. 



,PUMP 



WELL 



A (see illustration page 143) is entrance to this network of 
loose clay or cement tile. B (see illustratit»n page 143) is the 
exit. There nuist, of course, be a slight incline toward 15. Dur- 
ing irrigation the exit IJ is closed and the water enters A and 
flushes the whole s\stem. 



1-12 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

To convert this into a drainage system, the supply A is closed, 
the exit B is opened, but there must be, of course, a ditch at B 
to carry off the drainage water. 

This system of irrigation may have its disadvantages and 
may only be applicable to certain locations and soils, but where 
it does apply it is certainly the best and cheapest. 

In calling it "the best" I speak wholly from the standpoint 
of plant physiology and economy. The water which the plant 











































. 
















RANa 
































A 

























EXIT 



UIAGKAM OF A LOOSE TILK IKKIOATING AND DRAINAGE SYSTEM. 

uses should come from below in a steady, automatic way. There 
should be a dust mulch on the surface, and the water should 
rise to the plant by capillarity. When there is a flush of water 
at regular intervals, as would be supplied by the tank siphon sys- 
tem, there is also a flush of air through the pipes; and air is 
just as essential to the roots of plants as is water. All air or 
all water in the interstices of the soil is not desirable. The a])])li- 
cation of water to the surface of a soil causes a superficial root 



143 



THE EVERGLADES 

development. It often requires an enormous amount of water 
to wet some soils on the surface, especially some sandy soils in 
South Florida. .Vfter heavy rains on sandy soils one can often 
find dust a short distance below the surface. A large amount 
of water is lost by evaporation. Keep tlie soil moist an inch or 
more below the surface under a fine dust mulch and the con- 
ditions are best for a healthy tree growth. The soil should be 
driest on the surface, not wet above and dry beneath. Sub- 
irrigation combined with ditches will no doubt fit the Everglades 
better than any other system — in fact, by controlling the water- 
table by the aid of ditches and dams so that it can be raised or 
lowered at any time without difficulty a perfect system of sub- 
irrigation is produced without the use of pipes. In case, how- 
ever, the water-taljle is too low, as it will no doubt be in many 
cascs, it will be necessary to resort to pumps or tanks and pipes. 

The Sanford system is the best I have seen, and although it 
may have objections and is by no means perfect and adaptable 
to all conditions, it costs less, and from the standpoint of botan- 
ical physiology sup])lies the water in the right way and in the 
right place. To be sure, the natural rain falls on the surface 
but the bulk of the water the plant uses sinks down first and 
then comes up again by capillarity. Water is the vehicle of the 
mineral plant-food and should be applied in such a way that it 
will have great solvent action and be constantly present in just 
the proper quantity for plant growth. It is better to have a 
little less water than too much of it. Too much of it washes 
away the fertility and is lost — too little merely checks growth 
for a time. When applied from beneath the surface there is less 
danger of soil saturation and better opportunity to keep the 
water-table just where it is needed for best results, especially 
if, as in the Sanford system, it can be used for drainage in 
times of heavy rain. 

The two objections which I have heard to this system are 
first that there must be an impervious subsoil rather close to 
the surface soil to hold the water. I can't see. however, why 
an impervious subsoil is any more necessary in one kind of 
irrigation than in another. The water-table is not far from 

144 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

the surface, anyway, in South Florida. There are times ex- 
tending over weeks when there is plenty of moisture and when 
irrigation does harm rather than good. The second objection 
is that since these tiles are loose and not fastened together 
with cement, fine tree roots will work into the crevices and choke 
up the pipes. This is not a serious objection when you con- 
sider that such a growth is a sure sign that your trees are 
growing and that they are after just what you are giving them. 
One can dig up the tiles and shift them at very slight expense. 
To condemn the system for this reason would be like refusing 
to buy your son new clothes solely because he had outgrown 
his old ones. One difficulty has been to get force of water 
enough from a small windmill to carry to the end of your sys- 
tem, even if you have a good fall. This difficulty is automat- 
ically overcome by the siphon scheme in tank A. The whole 
question of irrigation and drainage is to have the water-table 
always at just the proper level in the soil to suit the kind of 
crop you are trying to raise. There is no simpler, cheaper or 
more efficient way of doing it than by a system of subirrigation 
and drainage similar to the methods applied at Sanford. 



145 



From the Everglade Magazine, July. igii. 




CHAI'TKR XXI J. 

wiiA'i' IS mix:k? 

UCK in South Morida is a hlack friable soil 
consisting of decomposed vegetable matter 
mixed with marl, sand and other natural 
refuse. I have underscored the word friable, 
which means easily crumbled, or pulverized, 
or, as a farmer would say, easily "worked." 
The friability of muck distinguishes it from 
peat, which is hbrous. incompletely clecom- 
posed, poor in nitrogen and fairl}- free from marl, sand and 
other natural refuse. 

I am about to ])ut in ])lack and white a sweeping statement 
based on m\- own as well as the experiences of others. It i- a 
statement which I write guardedly after due reflection, but it is 
almost axiomatic, and is as follows: The iiiitck content of a 
marl or sand soil in Sonth Florida is the measure of its natural 
fertility. 

In other words, if our sand or marl soils do not contain de- 
composed vegetable matter, which is muck or humus, they will 
produce without the ajiiilication of fertilizer little more than pine 
trees and palmettoes. If there is any fertile soil in South Flor- 
ida, it is the muck soil and the soil in hammocks. The hamiuock 
soil consists mainly of leaf mold. 

X'egetable matter in a soil holds water as does a sponge; in 
coarse, sandy soils it fills the interstices and aids capillarity, as 
does a wick, and in tight marl or clay soils it imparts looseness 
and facilitates drainage. Although the al)ove may sound con- 
tradictor\-. it is true that muck in mixture witli sand or marl is 
a great <|ualitv c\ener, correcting the defects in both. 



146 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

Returning to my definition of muck, it is only natural to 
ask the source of this "marl, sand and other natural refuse," 
which is usually mixed with muck, or vice versa. Enthusiastic 
gladers, in speaking of pure muck, aften lay special stress on 
the word pure. Although apparently pure muck is plentiful, it is 
rare indeed unmixed with other materials to some extent. 
It is in fact usually mixed with sand or marl or both, and is 
all the better for it. 

In my youth I worked in the cranberry bogs of New Jersey. 
In order to produce a great yield of berries it was necessary 
to "sand" the bogs from time to time. A layer of an inch or 
more was spread over the surface of the muck. 

Marl is a fine deposit of the carbonate of lime, with perhaps 
other mineral ingredients which the water of the glades is no 
longer able to hold in solution in the process of evaporation. It 
drops in a fine flocculent state to the bottom, and for a time 
clings like slime to every twig and blade of grass. During 
times when the glades are not flooded it is no doubt washed 
by rains through the loose muck and forms in strata at varying 
depths. 

It is hardly necessary to explain the source of sand, which is 
washed in and blown in from almost every direction. In fact, 
it comes up from below, where there are springs. Sand is, in 
fact, almost omnipresent in South Florida. Silica, or pure sand, 
enters into the composition of the outer coating of grasses ; in 
fact, the stalks of corn, cane and bamboo are covered with it to 
such extent that they have a hard, shiny and slippery surface. 

As to other "natural refuse," it would be difficult to enumer- 
ate its many sources. It includes the shells of snails, the bones 
of various animals such as turtles, the castings of many crea- 
tures invisible to the naked eye, the droppings of birds, the 
hodge-podge of wind and wave; and, although the Everglades 
look bare and lonely, there are many creatures there, both visible 
and invisible, benign, neutral or destructive. Even the alligator 
is by no means as yet nearing extinction. 

Those delicately-fashioned, microscopic plants called "dia- 
toms" usually swarm in such places. Their silicious castings, 

147 



THE EVERGLADES 

although minute, exist in some parts of the world to such ex- 
tent that they form strata of soil known as "diatomaceous 
earths." They enter extensively into tlie composition of some 
marls. 

In general, the word "muck" has as broad a meaning as has 
the word "mud." Any kind of sloppy stufT may be safely called 
mud, and the same applies to the word muck. It is easy to 
throw different things together under the same name, even if 
they have only one unimportant quality in common. For in- 
stance, a mason will call his mortar "mud," just as electricians 
frequently call the current in the wire "juice." The word 
"muck" really means manure, as is indicated in the common term 
"muckraker." It is also a[)plied to "vcgetaljle mold commonly 
combined with earth, as swam]i-muck," and no doulit the rich- 
ness of the latter is the sou-ce of the application of the term 
to soil. 

Those soils usually referred to as "ricli l)lack lands," 
especially in the Tropics, ow^e their color and fertility, of course, 
to the large percentage of decomposed vegetation whicli tliey 
contain. In fact, when one speaks of these "l)lack land^" in a 
tropical country it is superfluous to use the adjective "rich," since 
their richness goes without saying. It also goes without saying 
that when drained they arc the first to sell, and I think I am safe 
in saying that the record prices for agricultural land are held 
by the reclaimed ninck lands. If poor land is worth fifty cents, 
an acre of good land ought to be worth five hundred dollars, in 
comparison ; in fact, a cent a s{|uare foot seems cheap for every- 
thing except land. 

Muck has a right to fairly reek witli richness. In a warm 
climate the leaves and other detritus are constantly falling. 
Leaves are never heaped up in great piles all of a sudden, as 
they are in the fall in the North, just at a time when the cold 
of winter prevents decomposition. The moist, warm ground of 
the Tropics forms the very best bed for the activities of the 
organisms of decay. Decomposition is therefore not only quick, but 
continuous. In tlu- shallow water of the Glades, at times dry 
and exposed to the '^un. but usually (l)i'fore drained) little more 

MX 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

than a slough hardly deep enough to float a flat-boat, decompo- 
sition must be rapid. The whole is usually covered with a mass 
of sawgrass higher than your head, falling in great masses, crop 
after crop, for ages past, with no cold to check vegetative 
growth or decomposition, mixed with deposits of marl and the 
detritus of living creatures great and small. All this was and is 
being deposited on the bed of an old bay or arm of the sea, as 
is evidenced by the great masses of shells, and the like, a few 
feet below the surface. // the Everglades are not a great store- 
house of natural fertility no other place on earth Jias the right 
to claim it. 

Such terms as mud, muck, peat, marl, etc., are indefinite and 
loosely and variously applied in the many localities in which 
they are located, and may be, as they usually are, of very dif- 
ferent composition. 

Even the term sand, as commonly applied, relates more to 
the character and consistency of the substance than to its chem- 
ical composition. Pure sand is always supposed to be silica, 
but what is often called sand in South Florida and the West 
Indies may be ground coral or shell, and consists almost entirely 
of the carbonate of lime. The so-called "coral sands" of the 
Tropics often harden into limestone rock and may be burnt into 
lime. 

Half the disputes of this character in this world hinge 
on definitions, and the more indefinite the terms the wider is 
the scope for discussion and altercation. 

The great sine qua non for soils, the thing that imparts fresh- 
ness and virginity, the thing that gives them life and productivity, 
is humus. Humus is decayed vegetable matter, and muck is 
a form of humus. The degree of richness of humus depends 
on the character of the detritus which forms it. If from leaves 
and wood of such trees as beech, oak or mahogany, it is ex- 
tremely rich, and while that from grasses may not equal it, it is 
all more or less rich if completely decomposed. I have read of 
an old English gardener who was famous for the quantity, and 
especially the quality, of vegetables and fruit which he pro- 
duced on a small area of land. His hobbv was never to use any 

149 



rill-: EVERGLADES 

kind of fertilizer except powdered rock, wood ashes and leaf 
mold. He could, in truth, have used nothing better. 

When a soil is worn out, when a field fails to yield a suffi- 
cient return to pay for labor and seed, the trouble is usually due 
to a lack of humus. Cajiital must be put into it, rejuvenatitm 
must begin, green crops must be grown and plowed under and 
stable manure is usually lavishly applied ; in other words, humus 
is added, not only to enrich it but to loosen and aerate it. as well 
as to increase its moisture content. Although /// spots a little 
too duffy or peaty, and as yet incompletely decomposed into 
humus, the Everglades as a whole are almost pure humus, and 
would always be benefited by an admixture of sand or marl. 

We nuist regard a soil as not merely the substances which 
constitute it. A soil is the home of countless living organisms. 
Alfalfa, for instance, will not grow in a soil which does not 
contain the alfalfa bactertiid. Darwin has shown what the 
earthworm can do; in fact, the soil in some places is a menagerie 
of minute living things — some good, some bad, but by far the 
majority in a soil rich in liunius are beneficent. When we call a 
wornout soil "dead," we arc literally correct. With the ex- 
haustion of the humus u])on which these organisms feed, their 
death ensues. 

Nature is ever striving to correct this lack of hunuis. Vege- 
tation is constantly shedding this fertility on the surface in the 
form of detritus, which rots into humus. The pioneer plants 
lirst apj)ear on a denuilcd hillside or otlicr bald region which for 
many reasons may be destitute of vegetation; seeds of many 
things are brought by the winds or carried b\- birds, and hunuis 
is very slowly added, if retarding influences, such as tire inter- 
fere; l)ut in time, ages in fact, Xatiirc wins out. and a climax 
forest, such as the tropical hammock, results. 

In northern bogs the decom])osition of organic matter is ar- 
rested not only by the cold which restricts the activities of the 
living organisms which cause it. but acids are produced which 
render the soil sour. The natural disintegration of vegetable 
matter is thus hindered to such extent that dutT in such places 
as the .\dirond;irk> accumulates ^e\eral feet in thickness. In 

l.^^O 



I 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

bojrs in the old country the peat is antiseptic, and natives bury 
perishable articles to preserve them. Logs such as bog-oak in 
tlie I5ritish Isles, and white cedar in New Jersey, have been 
buried for ages, and are today, when exhumed, as sound as ever, 
i'eat from Holland is baled and shii)ped to Hoboken on the 
Dutch I-ine, and is used for bedding sick horses because of its 
absorbent and antiseptic nature. 

In the Lverglades, however, there is very little sourness or 
acidity, because of the natural alkalinity of the water. There is 
probably less acidity than on high lands which are covered with 
palmettoes. The roots of palmettoes are strongly acid and do not 
disintegrate for a long period of time. The waters of the whole 
Everglade region are charged with lime. Owing to the sweet- 
ness of the fresh soil, a good crop can usually be produced on 
ICverglade muck the very first year, and there is, in consequence, 
never the long wait and expense of liming, which is usually the 
case in the sweetening and taming of bog lands in the North. 
This natural sweetness of the soil of the Everglades accounts in 
part also for the rapid decomposition, since the organisms of 
decay usually operate with greater vigor in a solution which is 
alkaline in nature. 

li the Everglades had not been covered with an excess of 
water during a long portion of the year, it would have been a 
great hardwood forest, as dense and dank as the Anotalaaga 
I [ammock ; the soil would have lx;en even more fertile, but the 
process of clearing would have been very expensive. It was 
for long jjeriods tfjo wet for almost everything except sawgrass 
and other acjuatic plants. These for untold ages have been 
growing, falling and rotting until there is now in many ])laces 
several feet of this rich, black vegetable matter, a great agricul- 
tural reserve material for the future, just as the phosphate beds 
are a great reserve of phosphorus from the bones, etc., of the 
animals of the sea. 

This great body of muck fc^rmed in spite of the fires which 
swept over it during the dry season and which the Indians still 
set for various purposes. In fact, I have seen parties of white 
men fire the sawgrass just to clear the landscape and facilitate 

151 



THE EVERGLADES 

walking. These fires, of course, liave added a tliin coating of 
ashes without injury to the roots, so that there has cjuickly fol- 
lowed another growth of sawgrass. When the water is off, wild 
flowers begin to appear, and up on the high white banks along 
the canals wild rubbers, the seeds of which have been dropped 
by passing birds, are already in evidence. 

The bulk of our "hammock" bearing trees produce berries, 
the seeds of which are carried by birds and other animals. \'ery 
few, such as the mahogany, have winged seeds or samarras for 
distribution by the wind. When the Everglades are drained, if 
they are not immediately cultivated and kept in cultivation, the 
birds will supply the seeds, and with the moist, mucky germinat- 
ing bed in waiting, and with the forcing house warmth and nat- 
ural virility of the soil, a tropical forest jungle will follow with 
almost magical rapidity. If this muck had been covered with a 
dense forest growth even the most skeptical would never doubt 
its fertility, but the absence of trees is due solely to an excess 
of water. If the water had been salt it would have been, and 
l^erhaps at one time has been, a great mangrove swamp forest 
similar to the land south of the glades toward Cape Sable. 
The absence of buried logs and stumps would seem to indicate 
that for many ages it has been nothing but a fresh sawgrass 
morass. 

Counting time as we know it. Nature has been, no doubt, 
eons in storing this decomposed vegetable matter for this the 
first generation able by its engineering skill to reclaim it. In a 
short time, no doubt, it will pass into the fertile field stage. 
An area equal to a province or small kingdom has been lying 
dormant all these years with its natural channels and openings 
clogged. Open the way and the great steamship lines which 
hug our shore so close that their whistles can be heard and 
smokestacks seen, will stop and carry tlic ])ri)(lucts of the land 
to our greatest markets at a third, if not a fifth, of the present 
transportation cost. Given (]uick and cheap transportation and 
an organized distribution of products, and little questions such as 
what is muck, and what will muck produce, will ([uickly answer 
themselves. 

152 



From the Ez'ergladc Magazine, October, icjij. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



EVERGLADE SANITATION. 




ACK of all this recent industrial developtnent 
in the American Tropics is the fact that 
science has control of its worst enemy — dis- 
ease — especially such diseases as yellow fever, 
malarial fevers, and hookworm. The discov- 
ery of the causes and means of transmission 
of these diseases is of very recent date. A 
careful study of mortality statistics soon con- 
vinces one that unhealth fulness is no longer a factor in prevent- 
ing one from settling in a climate without winter; in fact, the 
equable temperature throughout the year of Southern Florida 
and the West Indies draws southward ever-increasing numbers 
of permanent settlers. For ages, however, development in trop- 
ical countries lagged — lagged because of one great fear — the fear 
of epidemics of various kinds which formerly discouraged capi- 
tal and retarded progress of all kinds. When a great epidemic 
mowed down whole communities like the famous Juggernaut of 
old, nothing was left but despondency, and newcomers shunned 
such places for years. In spite of boundless natural resources 
there was, in consequence, stagnation. 

This fear of the Tropics is still deeply grounded in the minds 
of many people, and nothing has done more to discredit Flor- 
ida than the fear of malaria. The easiest and most effective 
way to "knock" a region is to pronounce it "sickly." In this 
way fear instead of reason is invoked. There are many northern 
cities, and country districts as well, where malaria is prevalent 
and where it would be dangerous for a healthy person to tarry 
during the summer mosquito season without nets and quinine. 
There are parts of Florida also where malaria is common, but 

153 



THE EVERGLADES 

to call the whole of Florida malarial is as much of a libel as it 
would be to call the whole of Pennsylvania and Maryland ma- 
larial, while it is true that in parts of the latter named states 
malaria is just as common as it is in any part of Florida. 

To make a long story short, there is no place on earth freer 
from disease than the Everglades in its wild, uninhabited state ; 
the only diseases which we need fear are those which will be 
brought in from other places by many newcomers, and the worst 
of these diseases are the kinds which will be transmitted from 
man to man through the agency of various insects such as the 
housefly, the flea or the mosquito. 

The community's great safeguard, therefore, is in sanitation, 
which in this day mainly means the safe segregation of the dan- 
gerous sick and of their excreta and the control, and, if possible, 
the extermination of these pesky insect disease carriers. 

A malarial mosquito or a yellow fever mosquito is no worse 
than any other kind of mosquito if it is not infected, and it will 
not be infected if there is no malarial or yellow fever patient 
for it to feed on. 

I am glad to say there are very few mosquitoes in the Ever- 
glades. They are kept in check, no doubt, by their natural ene- 
mies, such as small fishes. The remarkable freedom of the 
Everglades from mosquitoes is a surprise to most people, but 
the fact has been known for many years. Years ago I heard 
the statement that the Indians always left the pineland for the 
Everglades during the summer to escape the mosquitoes. With 
the drainage of the swamp lands and the general removal of 
mosquito breeding and abiding places, this pest has gradually de- 
creased in the region around Miami to such extent that what was 
once almost an intolerable condition in summer is not now con- 
sidered a serious drawback, even by the tenderfoot. 

The home of the housefly and the hookworm is in the stable 
and cow pen. The use of the motor is lessening this evil. We 
were pestered with liouseflies in spite of good nets and a fairly 
clean stable. We sold the horse and bought an automobile. The 
flv nuisance stopped, and the safety from disease — since the fly 
carries typhoid and other ailments — not to mention the comfort 

154 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

from this riddance, more than offsets any expense over the cost 
of a horse. I beHeve that a light machine carefully operated, 
considering the work accomplished and time saved, is cheaper 
than a horse. When a horse gets old you hate to kill him and 
you hate to sell him. In the end somebody must dispose of him. 

The next nuisance to be rid of is the privy. There are privies 
and privies, some dignified with the name of earth closets, sani- 
tary closets, etc., but they are all rotten at best, and always a 
nuisance to keep in a clean condition. I say this in spite of a 
most excellent bulletin on "The Sanitary Privy" by Stiles and 
Lumsden, of the United States Department of Agriculture. The 
sanitary privy therein described is, of course, better than the 
ordinary kind, and the ordinary kind is probably a little better 
than none, but all are poor enough. I think many women would 
be content to live far out in the country if they could have an 
automobile to move about in from time to time, and I think the 
majority of women would rather have a shack of two rooms with 
a water supply and nice bathroom than a palace without it. 

I am fond of animals, but I believe it pays to cut out dogs 
and cats. They are certainly not fit to live with since they 
carry fleas, and fleas carry disease. Many a child has caught 
diphtheria from fondling a kitten. Well-bred and well-fed dogs 
and cats prowl with dirty dogs and cats in dirty places. 

A favorite breeding place for many of these pests is the 
privy and the garbage pile. This applies to the country as 
well as to the city ; and under the peculiar conditions of soil, 
moisture and warmth which will exist on the small farms of the 
Everglades, care should be exercised from the very start. The 
canals of the Everglades will be extensively used for transpor- 
tation and should not be polluted with sewage. I have seen 
parts of the New River almost filled with over-ripe tomatoes. 
This may never happen again, but such fine streams of water 
should never be polluted with refuse. It would be far better to 
scatter it over the land or compost it for manure. I find it costs 
but very little to bury such refuse. 

For drinking purposes I prefer rainwater in Florida. The 
majority of houses have good cisterns. Rainwater will keep 

155 



THE E\'ERGLADES 

fresh a lony time in a good covered cistern in South Florida. 
Cisterns, liowever, unless properly cleansed from time to time, 
get foul. Dust, pollen, bird lime, small winged seeds, etc., cling 
to the roof and wash into the cistern. Water often stands in 
rain gutters ; leaves also are caught there ; so that care must 
always be exercised to keep this rainwater pure and wholesome. 

Jn communities of any size there should be ice plants. These 
ice plants should, in fact, be owned by the community, and ice 
should be sold at cost. In cities such as Miami the majority of 
people drink melted ice, or purchase distilled water direct from 
the ice factorv. There is, of course, no water better or purer 
than cool distilled water or melted ice manufactured from dis- 
tilled water. 

ICverv small town should have an ice plant — not only liai'c it, 
but own it, as a community or county, and sell ice and distilled 
water at cost. The health and comfort of the community would 
be thus safeguarded. 

The inventor of artificial refrigeration was a Moridian. Dr. 
John Gorrie was born in Charleston. S. C. in 1803, and after 
graduating in medicine moved to Apalachicola, Fla. He was the 
father of mechanical refrigeration, a process for which he in- 
vented in the year 1843. He died in 1855. In 1911 ten thousand 
dollars was appropriated by the Florida Legislature to provide 
for a statue of Dr. John Gorrie in the National Statuary Hall 
in the Capitol of the United States at Washington. 

Water for the l)athroom and ordinary household purposes 
may be secured from shallow wells and pumped into a tank by 
hand, wind power or motor. The lift is so slight that one can 
pump directly into the 1)atli tub and closet and thus dispense with 
a windmill and tank altogether. A pitcher pump and single 
length of pipe are inexpensive. This method of ]nnii])ing di- 
rectly into the bath tul) and closet is fre(|uently used by those 
who cannot afford a tank and windmill. A tank and windmill 
pay in the end, since they can be used also for irrigation pur- 
poses. 

The sewage pipe from the kitchen sink and bathroom should 
run into a cesspool some distance from the house. It shouh 

156 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

not be less than fifty feet in length, and need not be more than 
one hundred feet. The shape of the cesspool is not a matter 
of great importance, although the style shown in the accompany- 
ing drawing is easy to construct and very satisfactory. The 
shape is pyramidal with a concrete slab over the manhole at the 
apex. This cesspool may be easily constructed by digging down 
several feet. If rock is near the surface a hole should be 
blasted out with dynamite. Many of the cesspools in Dade 



SLAB 



LEVEL OF GROUND 




TRANSVERSr. SIXTION OF A CICSSPOOL. 



county on the rock ridge consist simply of holes which have been 
blasted in the solid rock. The top is covered with lightwood 
logs, and these are covered with a layer of soil. In soft soil it is 
advisable to build a cesspool of rock and cement mortar. The 
fine white rock from the canal banks, when mixed with a small 
cjuantity of cement, hardens into a dura])le stone. I usually put 
up four scantling (2 by 4 inches) for corners in pyramid fash- 
ion. I nail rough boards on these, and then build the walls on the 

157 



THE E\^ERGLADES 

boards. Holes should be left for the sewage pipe to enter, and 
four holes for short, loose drain tiles. When the mortar has 
hardened saw ofif the scantling at the top, remove the boards in- 
side and put a concrete slab over the top. The drain tiles carry- 
off the liquid, and it is usually years before it is necessary to 
clean out the cesspool. The level of the liquid in the cesspool 
will usually correspond with the water-talile in the surround- 
ing soil. 



SAW OFF HERE 




HOLE FOR DRAIN TILE 



WOODEN FRAME KOK THE CONSTKrCTlON OF A CONCRETE CE.SSl'OOL. 



Over the cesspool and out ten or fifteen feet, corresponding 
to the distance of the loose tile drain. I plant bananas and other 
quick-growing vegetation. 1 find that bananas will consume an 
enormous amount of liquid and fertilizer of this kind, and do 
much toward disposing of all this household waste. They will 
yield a good return thrt)Ugh()Ut the \car and i)rcvcnl tlie soil 
from becoming foul. 

Florida has an active, up-to-date bnard of hcaUh. witli head- 
quarters in Jacksonville. They cheer full}- answer ([ucstions per- 

i.=;8 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

taining to health conditions and publish an interesting and useful 
monthly journal called the Florida Health Azotes, which they 
will send free of charge to all persons living in Florida. 

Florida, especially South Florida, is one of the healthiest 
places in all the world, and it behooves all of us to do everything 
in our power to keep it so. In fact, it is every man's duty to 
keep himself, his family and his farm in such condition that his 
neighbor will not suffer from his neglect. His duty extends 
further in using his influence within reason to urge others to 
do the same. 



159 



Frotu the Everglade Magazine, December, igir. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

A HOAIE ORCHARD PLAN, WITH A LIST OF THE 

PRINCIPAL FRUITS, ALPHABETICALLY 

ARRANGED. 




T IS often said that the farmer eats what he 
can't sell, while the agriculturist sells what he 
can't eat. The young folks are less inclined to 
leave a farm for the city if there is a good 
variety of good fruit on the place. A home in 
the country in South Florida isn't a home un- 
less it has at least two and one-half acres 
of various kinds of choice fruits. A large 
number of pcoi)lc come to Florida to build such a home, and 
many start their orchards long before they have a roof over 
their heads. 

Why two and one-half acres? The majority of holdings in 
South Florida are ten-acre tracts. This sounds small for a 
farm, but ten acres in a warm climate, where crops of many 
kinds may be produced continuously, is equivalent to a much 
larger area in the North. 

A home orchard is, of course, supposed to be mainly for 
home use. The amount consumed, of course, depends on the 
size and appetite of the family, but by planting a great variety 
ripening at all seasons even a small family can consume a lot of 
it. Many of these fruits may be jircscrved, such as the guava, 
and excess oranges and grapefruit max- be used fur marmalade. 
while such a fruit as tlic avocado is more like meat than fruit. 
T have known workmen ti) make a hearty lunch from an avocado 
and Iialf a loaf of bread. In some places the avocado is called 
"Midsliipnian's lUittcr." 

ir)0 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

A part of this two-and-one-half-acre space is occupied by 
buildings. \'egetables may be grown to advantage among the 
trees until the trees become too large, then the orchard may be 
used for poultry. The poultry will help keep insects in check, 
and w^ill feed on many of the waste fruits. 

Of course, this plan might be varied to suit each tract. The 
house should be located to suit the view and location, and if 
the land varies in quality the trees should be planted to fit this 
variation. 

Trees should always be planted in group-like form, with 
ample wind protection. Put the hardy, storm-fast trees, such 
as the mango, on the rough land and on the outside. 

Ornamental trees of various kinds are, of course, worth hav- 
ing, but they require almost as much fertilizer and attention as 
do the fruit producers. In the Tropics there are many trees 
highly ornamental, and fine for shade, which are at the same 
time fruit-bearing. There is no finer shade or ornamental tree 
than the mango, and if choice varieties are planted no tree 
which yields a finer fruit. I have heard it said that some Flo- 
ridians in a pinch can live on guavas. If all the fruit yielded by 
a two-and-one-half-acre orchard cannot be consumed at home 
there is always a market for it, if it is choice in quality. Such 
fruits as guavas and limes are almost ever-bearing, the pomelo 
and orange have a long season, and bananas and pawpaws may 
be planted so as to produce continuously. 

The carissa is an ever-bearing hedge plant from South Africa. 
It bears an abundance of plum-like fruits which, when cooked, 
are hardly distinguishable from cranberries. 

The Surinam cherry is a beautiful bush, yielding an abun- 
dance of juicy cherries somewhat similar to Northern cherries. 
They are relished by many people, although the flavor is not 
always at first agreeable. 

The limes should be seedlings from the Keys. Young plants 
mav be had bv the hundred from five to ten cents each. 

The guavas should be raised from seed selected from choice 
fruits. The fruit of a good jelly producing variety can always 
be sold to the jelly factories for at least one cent per pound. 

161 



2/^ Acre Home Orchard 330 Feet Scjuare 



— 330Feet 

o o o o 




O O O O O O /K 

O O O O O 

/i O O O O ^ 

^]yl O Q O Q 

&i O Q Q Q "^ 

O O O O O 

O O O '^ 

o o o o o 

O Q O G O ^ 





9? 



o 
o 
o 



OOOOOOOOG 



o 

X 'S 



o-COCOPALMS 

x = MANGO TREES 

O^GUAVAS 

*-LIMES 

O -AVOCADO 

SP-POMELO S ORANGES 

NOTE.PINE APPLES MAY BE GROWN 

BETWEEN THE TREES IF THE SOIL IS 



I&2 CARISSA HEDGE 
3= HOUSE 

4. = GARAGE - STABLE 
OR PACKING HOUSE 

5 = SURINAM CHERRY 

6 = BANANAS & PAWPAWS 

AROUND CESSPOOL. 
SANDY. 



A IIOMK (l|.( IIAM) I'l.W. 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

The cocopalin will not grow everywhere, but it usually flour- 
ishes on moist soil within a few miles of the seashore. Sprouted 
nuts ready to plant are usually easily secured at ten cents each. 
The cocopalm likes to be shaded in youth, and care should be 
exercised to protect the growing shoot from rabbits, etc. 

The pawpaw is grown directly from fresh seed, and bananas 
are produced from root-suckers. An old banana root may be di- 
vided into several parts, and each part will produce a plant. 

Fairly good mangoes and avocadoes may be secured by plant- 
ing the seeds. The best kinds are budded and are expensive. 

Pomelo, oranges, tangerines, etc., may be had in abundance 
at the nurseries at reasonable prices. Care should be exercised 
in securing the proper kind of stock — that is, the stock best 
adapted to the soil of the special region in which you live. 

Many people prefer to plant the sour stock and then bud the 
trees themselves. In that way they are sure of what they are 
getting and save a little by it. 

Aside from the pleasure of having this fruit to eat, aside from 
the beauty and comfort it gives, a small orchard of this kind adds 
value to a piece of real estate far out of proportion to its actual 
cost. Many small places have sold to good advantage because 
of a few choice fruit trees around the house and barn. One 
choice bearing mango tree alone is worth as much as ten acres of 
ordinary bare land. 

Next to climate, the greatest charm of South Florida is 
the great variety of choice quality of fruits it is capable of pro- 
ducing. Many of these fruits are solid, meaty foods, such as 
the avocado, banana, and guava. 

In addition to the fruits above mentioned, pineapples may be 
grown between the trees, if the soil is sandy. 

A LIST OF THE FRUITS OF SOUTH FLORIDA, ALPHABETICALLY 

ARRANGED. 

Aberia caffra — Kai-apple. 

Achras sapota — See Sapota zapotilla. 

Akee — See Blighia sapida. 

163 



THE EVERGLADES 

Amygdalis Persica — Peach. 
Anacardium occidentale — Cashew. 
Ananas ananas — Pineapple. 
Annona reticulata — Custard apple. 
Annona glabra — Pond apple. 
Annona muricata — Sour sop. 
Annona squamosa — Sugar apple. 
Annona cherimolia — CherimOya. 
Artocarpus integrifolia — Jak-fruit.* 
Avocado — See Persea gratissima. 




A FIXE TVPF. OK AVOCADO. 

r>anana — See Musa paradisiaca. 
Blighia sapida — Akee. 
Cantaloupe — See Cucumis melo. 
Carob — See Ceratonia siliqua. 
Carica papaya — Papaw. 
Carissa grandiflora — Natal plum. 
Casimiroa cdulis — White Sapota. 

164 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

Cashew — See Anacardium occidentale. 
Ceratonia siliqua — Carob. 
Ceriman — See Monstera deliciosa- 
Cherimoya — See Annona cherimolia. 
Cherry Surinam — See Eugenia. 
Cherry — See Laurocerasus sphaerocarpa. 
Chrysobalanus Icaco — Cocoplum. 
Chrysophyllum cainito — Star apple. 
Cicca disticha — Gooseberry tree. 
Citrullus citrullus — Watermelon. 
Citron — See Citrus medica. 




A FIXE TYPK OF BANANA PRODUCED ON MUCK SOIL AT COCOANUT GROVE. 

Citrus aurantium — Sweet orange. 
Citrus decumanna — Pomelo or grapefruit. 
Citrus Japonica — Kumquat or Kin-Kan. 
Citrus Limetta — Lime. 



165 



THE EVERGLADES 

Citrus Limonium — Lemon. 

Citrus meclica — Citron. 

Citrus nobilis — Tangerine. 

Citrus vulgaris — Bitter orange. 

Coconut or Cocopalm — See Cocos nucifera. 

Cocoplum — See Chrysobalanus Icaco. 

Cocos nucifera — Coconut or Cocopalm. 

Cucumis melo — Cantaloupe. 




A.\ .WOCAI () G[<0\'1-: 



(ustanl ap])le — See Annona reticulata. 
1 )at(.' I'alni — -See Phoenix dactylifcra. 
Diospyros kaki — Ja])anese pcrsimnKm. 
Dios])yr<)S \'irginiana — Xative persinmn >n. 
Egg-fruit — See Lucunia Rivicoa var. angustit'olia. 
l"".riob()trya Japonica — Locjuat. 
JMigcnia jamho^ — Ko^^e a])ple. 
luigenia unillnra < n- I'itanga — .^nrinani oluri-y. 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

Feijoa Sellowiana. a recent introduction from Uruguay, allied 

to the guava. 
Ficus carica — Fig. 
Fig — See Ficus carica. 
Fragaria Americana — Strawberry. 
Gooseberry tree — See Cicca disticha. 
Grape, Key — See Vitis sp. 
(iranidilla — See Passiflora edulis. 
Grapefruit — See Citrus decumanna. 
Guava — See Psidium. 

Hibiscus sabdariffa — Roselle or Jamaica Sorrel. 
Jak-fruit — See Artocarpus integri folia. 
Kai-apple — See Aberia caffra. 
Kumquat or Kin-Kan — See Citrus Japonica. 
Laurocerasus sphaerocarpa — West India cherry. 
Lemon — See Citrus Limonium. 
Lime — See Citrus Limetta. 
Loquat — See Eriobotrya Japonica. 

Lucuma Rivicoa var. angustifolia — Ti-es or Egg-fruit. 
Alangifera Indica — Mango. 
Mango — See Mangifera Indica. 
Alammee — See Mammea Americana. 
Mammea Americana — Mammee. 
Melicocca bijuga — Spanish lime. 
Mulberry — See Morus nigra and rubra. 
Monstera deliciosa — Ceriman. 
Morus nigra — Black mulberry. 
Morus rubra — Red mulberry. 
Musa paradisiaca — Banana. 
Muscadinia munsoniana — Wild shore grape. 
]\Iuscadinia rotundifolia — Scuppernong. 
Natal-plum — See Carissa grandiflora. 
Olea Europea — Olive. 
Olive — See Olea Europea. 

Orange — See Citrus vulgaris and Citrus aurantium. 
Opuntia ficus-indica — Tuna. 
Otahaite apple — See Spondias dulcis. 

167 



THE E\^ERGLADES 

Pawpaw — See Carica papaya. 

Passiflora edulis — Granidilla or Passion Flower 

Persimmon — See Diospyros. 

Peach — See Amygdalus Persica. 

Persea gratissima — Avocado. 

Phoenix dactyhfera — Date-pahn. 

Pineapple — See Ananas Ananas. 

Pomelo — See Citrus decumana. 




TH1-: TI-ES, A LITTLK KXOWN BUT PROMISING FRUIT. 

Pomegranate — See Punica granatum. 
Pond apple — See Annona glabra. 
Punica Granatum — Pomegranate. 
Psidium lucidum — Chinese Guava. 
Psidium Cattlcyanum — Cattley Guava. 
Psidium guajava — Common Guava. 
Rose apple — See Eugenia Jamhos. 
Roselle — See Hibiscus sabdariffa. 

168 



I 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

Sapota zapotilla — Sapodilla. 

Sapodilla — See Sapota (or Achras) zapotilla. 

Scarlet Plum or Spanish Plum — See Spondias pur[)urea. 

Scuppernong grape — See Muscadinia rotundifolia. 

Shaddock — See Citrus decumanna. 

Sour-sop — See Annona muricata. 

Spanish lime — See Melicocca bijuga. 

Spondias dulcis — Otahaite apple. 

Spondias purpurea — Scarlet or Spanish Plum. 

Star apple — See Chrysophyllum cainito. 

Strawberry — See Fragaria Americana. 

Sugar apple — See Annona squamosa. 

Surinam cherry — See Eugenia. 

Tamarind — See Tamarindus Indica. 

Tamarindus Indica — Tamarind. 

Tangerine — See Citrus nobilis. 

Ti-es — See Lucuma Rivicoa var. angustifolia. 

Tuna or Prickly pear — See Opuntia ficus-indica. 

Vitis sp. Key grape. 

Watermelon — See Citrullus Citrullus. 

There are many wild fruits in the Tropics awaiting introduc- 
tion and improvement. Some kinds may never develop into 
productive fruit bearers in this region and some may be of value 
only as stocks for other fruits, but with the species mentioned 
above, already divided into many varieties, and those which will 
be soon introduced and improved, the subject looms up both big 
and varied for the horticulturists of the future. 

*The jak-fruit has fruited in Florida at the home of W. A. Hobbs 
Cocoanut Grove, Florida. The variety is probably the "Johore jak," which 
has a small fruit weighing about ten pounds, and although highly esteemed 
in the East, has a sickening odor. It is claimed that some of these jak- 
fruits grow to a weight of one hundred pounds. 



169 



From the Garden Magazine. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



THE HUMBLE KOONTI. 




HE koonti, in spite of its queer Indian name, is 
not a spook or a rare wild animal. It is a 
beautiful, wonderful, humble little plant that 
grows in the hot sands and among the rough 
limestone rocks of South Florida. It is com- 
monly spelled coontie or comptie, but in a re- 
port on the Seminoles issued by the Bureau 
of Ethnology the form koonti is used. The 
word in Seminole apparently means more than the mere name 
of the plant. I have heard it has the significance of the word 
"bread," or "grits," or "grub," since koonti starch has been for 
many years the farinaceous mainstay of this people. 

Usually when a man needs bread he raises the wheat or buys 
it. The semi-nude Seminole orders his squaws to dig it. With 
clumsy sticks they pry the roots, or rather the underground 
stems, out of the ground. They pound them fine with mastic- 
wood pestles in cavities cut in a pine log. Then by settling, 
straining, washing, etc., the fine starch is separated. 

Aside from its connection with the Seminole, it supplied the 
eaily settler with food, and today, to some extent at least, enters 
into the arrowroot biscuit of commerce. 

It was no doubt used for food by the Indians which preceded 
the Seminole. The latter is really a newcomer in South Florida, 
and but very little is known of the aborigines except that they 
were fierce fighters, good navigators and closely related to the 
Indians of the West Indies. It is barely possible that a few of 
these may have escaped the slave-hunting .Sjianiards and after- 
ward amalgamated with the Seminole. 

170 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

Koonti grows in the West Indies; practically the same plant 
may be found on Andros Island in the Bahamas, and the natives 
still manufacture the starch, which they sell in Nassau for wash- 
ing and other purposes. 

The koonti is a sago, but the starch which it yields is known 
on the market as Florida arrowroot, though the true arrowroot 
starch is yielded by another and very different plant. Over in 
the Bahama Islands koonti is called bav-rush. 




THE KOONTI-LOG. 



COPIED FROM U. S. ETHNOLOGICAL REPORT ON THE 
SEMINOLES. 



Koonti grows on the high, dry land among the pines and pal- 
mettoes ; in fact, they say, in locating land for a home, "Look for 
koonti. Where koonti grows the land is never flooded." I used 
to wonder at the large number of old blazes on pine trees. I 
have since learned that they marked the tasks for the koonti 
diggers. Although there are the ruins here and there throughout 
the woods of primitive koonti mills, a few are still at it, and one 
man near here has a comparatively large plant with considerable 

171 



THE E\^ERGLADES 

machinery. The refuse from these factories is useful for fer- 
tilizer. This would serve no doubt much better as a filler for 
commercial fertilizer than brown paper or mud from lake bot- 
toms. 

Fire sweeps over these pine lands frequently, but the koonti 
is safe ; in fact, better off, since the main part of the plant is 
underground and the fire opens the cone-like fruits and helps 




AlOir O.NK-TENTH NATURAL SIZK. 



AUOUT NATUKAI. SIZK 



to scatter the seeds. One could easily form a permanent koonti 
farm in the pines by grubbing up the palmettoes and fire-flash- 
ing the surface once a year at a time when there is the least 
danger of doing damage. This is about the best, in fact the only 
way of keeping the fire damage down in a pine-covered palmetto 
country. It is an old Indian method, but is practiced even in 
France with its up-t(i-datc foresters. There would be little need 

172 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

of fencing such a plantation, since few things except the koonti 
worm eat it a second time. In its raw state, leaves, seeds and 
stems are undoubtedly poisonous. 

Animals which drink the red-water from washing the starch 
usually die, not a quick death but a slow poisoning. The seeds 
form in a brown cone-like head and resemble very large grains of 
fresh corn. The natives call these seeds koonti or comptie corn. 
I have heard it said that crows eat "comptie corn" and live, but 
that one reason why turkeys are not successful here is that they 
kill themselves by eating comptie corn. 

The koonti is a very small plant with a large underground 
stem. This stem is as big as a turnip and is full of starch. The 
foliage, which is often very scant, especially wdien the seed head 
is mature, consists of a tuft of fern-like, glossy green leaves. 

A fine healthy specimen forms a beautiful pot plant. Koonti 
plants have been shipped North for this purpose. It grows 
easily and is easily transplanted. According to the botanists, 
there are two species in South Florida, one is Zamia Floridana 
and the other is Zaiiiia pumila. The latter inhabits Central 
Florida and the former is found on the east coast below New 
River. 

Its great botanical interest lies in the fact that it is a link be- 
tween the highest cryptogams and lowest phanerogams. The 
fecundation of this plant is peculiar and difficult to explain in de- 
tail in this connection. Suffice it to say that the pollen grains 
develop spermatozoa which wiggle about at such a lively rate 
that one might easily believe that the koonti, after all, is partly 
animal. 

This subject has been carefully studied by Dr. H. J. Webber, 
and embodied in Bulletin No. 2, 1901, entitled "Spermatogenesis 
and Fecundation of Zamia," United States Department of Agri- 
culture, Bureau of Plant Industry. 

Dr. Webber found the mature spermatozoids of Zamia to 
be the largest known to occur in any plant or animal. They are 
even visible to the naked eye. He kept them alive in sugar solu- 
tions and found their motion to be due mainly to the action 
of cilia. 

173 



THE EVERGLADES 



Such a plant ought to be very carefully studied and improved. 
It is rare, indeed, that nature, off-hand, produces such an agri- 
cultural snap. It yields starch of good quality; it plants itself 
and grows without care or cultivation; it is not injured by fire, 
and, because of its poisonous nature, has few if any enemies ; it 
grows on very poor land which can at the same time be producing 
timber. 







^ -J 


1 






^Sft 


h 








[/ 


1 Juttm 


31 




1 




w^ 


/ 


IM 


1 



KOOT N()I)L"I.I'.S OF KC.ONTI. 
A150UT ONE-THIKD NATUR.\L SIZE. 



P. S. — Since writing the above article on the Humble Koonti 
in the January issue of the Garden Magazine, I have read in the 
United States Agricultural Year-Book for 1910 that plants of 
the order Cycadaceae have large nodules on their roots and are 
capable of appropriating nitrogen through this agency, as do the 
legumes. Since the koonti belongs to the Cycad order, I began 
a search at once, and was soon rewarded by finding the typical 
Cycad nodule on its roots. 



17- 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

This plant, already famous because of its peculiar fecunda- 
tion, is also unique in being, so far as known to the writer, the 
only root-crop capable of capturing its own nitrogen direct from 
the air of the soil by means of these peculiar coral-like bacteroid 
root masses. 

No wonder this plant flourishes where other root-crops would 
starve without the application of fertilizer ! No wonder the red- 
water from the starch washings enriches the soil ! No wonder 
the pumice residue from this starch manufacture is excellent for 
a fertilizer filler or a mulch around citrus trees ! The supply of 
nitrogen has really come from the air, and has been "fixed," or 
captured by these bacterial nodules ! 

This plant is indeed a wonder. It grows in the hot sands 
and rocks among pines and palmettoes and is burnt over by 
forest fires without being choked out or killed. x\ll the while, 
in fact, the soil is being improved by its presence. Being the 
only root-crop capable of garnering its own supply of nitrogen, 
this plant should be improved, and its cultivation encouraged 
over a wider area. By inoculating the soil with its special type 
of bacteroid, as is done with clovers, it might succeed and prove 
of great value in certain dry tropical districts where other root- 
crops fail. A root-crop on some of the rocky limestone lands 
of South Florida, where soil of any kind is at a premium, seems 
anomalous; nevertheless, the roots of this hardy plant find places 
in the crevices. On well prepared soil the returns could be, no 
doubt, increased many fold. The largest nodules of this kind 
known occur on the velvet-bean, which grows so luxuriantly in 
this region and is so famous as a cattle fattener and producer of 
finely-flavored meat. It is said that the velvet-bean nodule is 
often as large as a baseball. The nodules on the koonti roots are 
also large, bunches the size of black walnuts being common. 



175 




AVKNUE OF ArSTKAI.IAN PINES. 



From the Everglade Magnciiie, January, wis. 



CHAPTER XX\'I. 

THE AUSTRALIAN PIXE— A PRO^HSIXG TREE EOR 
SOUTH FLORIDA. 




HE She-Oak, Beefwood, Casuarina, or Aus- 
tralian Pine, as it is commonly called in Flor- 
ida, has come to stay. It is rapidly hecoming 
the most popular tree for roadside planting 
in the Biscayne Bay district. The County 
Commissioners of Dade County will furnish 
these trees gratis to any person who will plant 
them along a public highwa}-. It is the favor- 
ite tree for schoolhouse yards and public grounds in general. 
The reason, or rather the reasons for this popularity are plain. 
A few of them are as follows : 

Rapid growth, adaptability to all kinds of soil and conditions, 
straight growth, ability to withstand gales of the severest kind. 

Some ardently admire it, others are not so fond of it, but all 
admit that for quick results on all kinds of soils it has few. if 
any, rivals. It grows well on marshlands subject to tidal over- 
flow ; it grows well on sand beeches close to the sea ; it grows 
well on moist muck lands, and, strange to say, it grows almost 
as well on high, dry sand and rock land. It is a vigorous feeder, 
finding nourishment and congenial surroundings in places where 
other trees would quickly languish and die. 

The tree is no new introduction into Florida. A few trees 
have been planted here and there for many years, but onlv re- 
cenetl}- have they been planted by the thousands for windbreaks, 
ornamental purposes and, incidentally, for timber. This tree may 
be planted close and clipped to form a very pretty and effective 
hedge. 

177 



Til J-: EX'ERGLADES 

There is a spot on Biscayne Bay called "The Cedars." It 
has been a favorite landmark for years. It consists of Aus- 
tralian pines which were "left-overs'" in a nursery. New ones 
have come from seed, and the seeds ha\e washed from place to 
place, so that here and there along the shore young Australian 
j)ine trees may be seen growing vigorously and ajiparently as 
much at home as in their native land. Tiiis tree is, however, now 
common throughout the Tropics. It encircles the globe and ap- 
pears to be native to East Africa, South Asia, North Australia 
and Polynesia. I have heard it said that its wood furnishes war 
clubs to the savages of the Eastern and Southern Seas, as well as 
golf clubs to their more cultivated neighbors. 

The accompanying illustration shows a fine avenue near 
Miami on the estate of the late General Samuel Lawrence. This 
distinguished man could not have a better monument. This 
picture was taken in this special location to show how close an 
Australian pine will grow to our native pine. I know of no 
other tree which would grow in the shade of and so close to the 
roots of an old large-sized native slash pine tree. Our native 
pine usually consumes all the fertility and moisture within reach 
of its roots. Every tree that I know of exce])t the Australian 
pine would die with the best of care in a similar situation. 
This is not on muck land, or even sand land, but on a high, rocky 
ridge, where there is a scarcity of soil of any kind. 

I have received many inquiries in reference to this tree from 
newcomers, and from two or three corporations considering the 
planting of a large area of salina land for timber. The following 
remarks will answer the majority of these questions : 

The tree is an early seed bearer. It is characteristically trop- 
ically precocious. It begins to yield an abuntlancc of seed when 
only two or three years old. 

Under very favorable condition^. I ha\e known these trees 
to grow ten feet per }ear during the Inst three years, and I 
would expect this rate of growth at least for the first five years 
of its life on Everglade soil. In its native land it is long-lived 
and reaches a maximum height of 150 feet. Many fear and 
many predict that this tree will be short-lived, will begin t("> "lie 

178 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

at the top and get stag-headed at an early age. Were it a soft- 
wooded, brittle tree, such as the majority of quick-growing 
species, like the poplar, this would be so ; but its wood is as hard 
and tough as the toughest oak. There are several trees in 
South Florida well on in years, and many in the West Indies 
of large size, which show no signs of decrepitude. 

The wood of this tree is splendid for fuel, leaving little ash 
and yielding great heat. For fuel purposes, however, our native 
Florida buttonwood has no superior. I would never recommend 
planting trees, anyway, solely for fuel. Limbage, slabs and other 
refuse from good timber ought to supply fuel demands in a South 
Florida climate. Although I have never verified the statement, 
competent authorities say that Australian pine will yield four 
times as much fuel wood in the same length of time on the 
same amount and quality of land as any hardwood tree of the 
temperate zone. 

The Australian pine outgrows any species of eucalyptus that 
I have seen in South Florida. The Australian pine grows nat- 
urally straight, the eucalyptus naturally crooked. The eucalyptus 
gets top-heavy and blows over easily unless deeply rooted ; the 
Australian pine, on the other hand, is a gale defier. Too much, 
however, must not be expected of it as a windbreak, because it 
lets the wind pass. Its thin, leaf-like branchlets give with the 
wind. In fact, the whole tree bends like a whip, and rarely, if 
ever, breaks. 

This tree is often called Polynesian Ironwood because of the 
hardness of its wood. The wood is red when fresh, but turns 
dark brown with age. It is often beautifully marked, resembling 
meat in color, giving rise, no doubt, to the common name, 
beefwood. 

J. H. Maiden is Government Botanist of New South Wales 
and Director of the Botanic Gardens at Sydney. He is the author 
of the "Forest Flora of New South Wales." I know of no 
better authority on Australian trees. In his district the Aus- 
tralian pine is called "she-oak." He has w^ritten a "Plea for the 
Cultivation of She-Oaks" in xA.ustralia, from which I quote the 
following : 

179 



THE EVERGLADES 

"I go farther, and say that if AustraHans would only take it 
into their heads to grow their she-oaks (and we have specie j 
for salt-water, fresh-water, for arid situations, and sterile places) 
they would be charmed at the result. A well-grown she-oak is 
one of the most beautiful trees in Australia, and affords a pleas- 
ing contrast to the trees usually grown, and in most cases suits 
our climatic conditions far better than the imported pines. The 
seed is very cheap (anyone can gather a few cones, place them on 
a sheet of newspaper and let them shed their seeds), the seed 
readily germinates, the trees are remarkably free from disease. 
grow rapidly, and their timber, apart from other uses, forms the 
best fuel we have." 

Casuarina wood is used for furniture manufacture in many 
parts of the East. In fact, it may be used for any one of the 
many purposes to which a hard, tough wood may be put. In 
outward appearance it resembles a pine, but the wood is as 
heavy and hard as the hardest oak. 

The tree grows straight by nature and bends like a whip 
in times of gale. These trees are seldom broken or uprooted by 
the storm, although fully exposed to the fury of it on the shore 
of the sea. The Australian pine has no leaves. The green parts 
of the tree are slender, drooping, jointed branchlets. 

Botanists have been at a loss to know just where to place this 
group of trees. Casuarina is the only known genus of a very dis- 
tinct family. This genus was once classed with the pines. Now 
it is placed by some botanists close to the family to which 
the walnut and hickory belong. The Casuarina^ are probably 
more closely related to this alliance (walnut family) than to any 
other. The scientific name of the species so common in Biscayne 
Bay region is Casuarina equisctifolia. It was called Casuarina 
because its leaves resemble the feathers of the Cassowary bird. 
The specific name, cqiiisetifolia, means "with leaves like the 
genus Equisetum," a group of jointed-stemmed plants commonly 
called "horsetails." 

The native pine of South Florida {Finns Elliot tii) is going. 
The Casuarina. from far-oflf Australia and Asia, is coming. In 
clearing the land of its native pines and in planting fruit trees 

180 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

and exotics of various kinds the pioneer feels that he is planting 
a better tree than the fallen. There is an old seal known as the 
"Seal of the Territory of the U. S. N. W. of the River Ohio," on 
which there is a picture of the first tree felled by the ax and cut 
into logs, succeeded by, apparently, an apple tree laden with 
fruit, with the inscription in Latin, "He has planted a better than 
the fallen." 

It may be in many cases that he has not planted "a. better 
than the fallen," but he meant well and should have credit for 
the spirit displayed because the clearing of the forest and plant- 
ing afresh requires much toil and much courage. In a tree you 
plant and tend yourself, just as in a piece of furniture con- 
structed by your own hands, you undoubtedly have a fuller sense 
of ownership and a greater pride. Turn the old pines into mate- 
rials of construction, clear the land, transform it by ridding it of 
weeds and wildness, plant it to the choicest fruit-bearing and 
timber-producing trees of all the world. Leave it better than you 
found it. "plant a better than the fallen." 

It is in the coast salina land and in the mucky glades, where 
there is no virgin forest to cut, that this tree will flourish to 
the greatest degree. Rows of these trees along canals, around 
dwellings, etc., will do much to render this vast treeless area 
attractive and suitable for homes. These trees will help to break 
the winds from the northwest and will help to give the balmy 
east wind and the gulf stream influences uninterrupted swing 
throughout the year. 



181 



■ ?^is? 


i 


3iw ^^^JJiKJHBH^ffiBMi^V^ 


^,•^^4 


^■'>r.. ^^^''^ .^ 




1^ t 


1 





A (ifMl;() UMBO TRKE 0\ TIIK ROAD IIKTWF.KX MIAMI AND COCOANTT GROVE. 



Fro)i! the Everglade Magacine. January, igiJ. 



CHAPTER XXX'II. 



THE GUMBO LIMBO. 




CCORDING to a local rhymester, "the gumho- 
limbo, with limbs akimbo, with gum like 
gumbo, with name a lingo, belongs, I guess, 
in limbo." Like the jobo of Spanish-America, 
this tree is not held in high esteem. A native 
will hack it regardless and pass the remark 
that it is "nothing but a gumbo-limbo.'' Since 
a weed is usually defined as a plant out of 
place, the gumbo-limbo would be classed in many instances in 
this category. All because it grows so rapidly and so easily and 
does not produce a wood which can be cut into boards for com- 
mercial purposes. When one sees acres of chestnut and white 
pine dying from disease with mankind unable to check it, it is 
refreshing to find a tree tliat will grow, and grow quickly, with- 
out the slightest difficulty and under conditions that seem almost 
impossible. For instance, blast a hole two or more feet deep in 
solid lime rock, dig up a gumbo-limbo tree twenty or more feet 
high, cut ofif its roots and cut ofif its branches, then set it in the 
hole, right side up or upside down, pack the powdered rock and 
dirt firmly around it as you would a fence post, omit water and 
fertilizer, and in a very short time it will sprout and grow vigor- 
ously. It is therefore a great tree for live fence posts. Its 
great usefulness, however, is in the fact that it is a pioneer, pav- 
ing the way for better kinds. It grows only in frostless regions 
and shows the greatest amount of vigor in limestone soils, no 
matter how rocky or barren these may be. 

Suppose a man desires to convert a pine woods into a hard- 
wood hammock. He can get quick results by setting large 
gumbo-limbo poles in the ground just as willows are often started 

183 



THE EX'ERGLADES 

in northern countries. The gumbo-Hmbo will soon shade the 
ground and shed a litter over the soil, and with the protection 
from sun and wind thus afforded other more delicate plants may 
be gradualK- introduced until the whole becomes in time a thick 
hardwood forest. 

I know a man who used gumbo-limbo stakes for his orange 
trees. He left home for a few weeks' visit in the Xorth and 
when he returned his grove looked like a gumbo-limbo planta- 
tion. This tree and the jobo (Spoiidias Intra) are of great serv- 
ice to the small West Indian farmer, who cannot aft'ord the 
common kind of fence posts. He makes a hole with a crowbar 
and sticks in a gumbo-limbo or jobo limb about two inches in 
diameter. These are placed every four or five feet. On these 
the fence wires are strung. They soon strike root and the farmer 
has a cheap but lasting hedge-like fence. Although the gumbo- 
limbo is one of those "no-account trees which will grenv any old 
way," the small West Indian farmer would be hard pushed for 
fence posts without it. When forage gets scarce, as is often the 
case during the long droughts which often occur in parts of the 
American tropics, the tops of the live gumbo-limbo fence posts 
are fed to the cattle. 

Its wood is almost as soft as cheese. A big tree can be 
easily felled with a machete. An ax can be completely buried in 
a gumbo-limbo tree with one hard stroke. It is also full of gum. 
When cut into boards, this gum ferments and the board l^ecomes 
black and mouldy. If ])r(>pfrly treated, this wood might be 
used for veneers for vegetable and fruit l)askets and crates. 

Its scientific name is Burscra simoruha. Rursera is for 
Rurser, a German botanist, but simaruba is an Indian word, the 
meaning of which I have never heard. This tree should not be 
C(in founded with Sbnaniha f/laitcci, the Paradise tree, which is 
common also in South b^lorida. Xcwcomers asking tlic name of 
Burscra sinianiba think the word "gumbo-limbo'' a joke. They 
are incredulous when you give its West Indian name, "almacigo," 
but when you call it the West Indian l)ircli they are l)etter satis- 
fied, since it has a ragged. ])ai)ery bark similar to the birch of the 
North. Over in Xassau they call it "gamoloniie," which is a cor- 

\94 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

ruption of gum elemi. Trees of this group yield an elemi gum. 
A thick-lipped negro could easily twist the word gum elemi into 
gumbo-limbo. 

Its limbs are easily shattered by the wind, and they grow so 
crooked that the tree is almost always irregular in shape. Its 
naked trunk looks like burnished copper, and although this tree 
may not be beautiful, it is certainly striking. 

I believe the wood has been used for cheap buckets, and I 
have heard that the gum is capable of being substituted for gum 
mastic as a transparent varnish. The wood is rarely used for 
fuel and yields a very poor grade of charcoal. 

It is, however, one of the trees which will be left when the 
better kinds are cut. We would prize it highly if Nature had 
not been so lavish in supplying us with so many kinds. It fills 
a place, however, in furnishing the poor man with fence posts and 
in covering with green many rocky places which would be bare 
without it. 



18.=; 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



THE CAMPHOR AND THE CAJEPUT. 



I ^^^ ' \f I HE great turpentine industry is passing. Creed 
W^HMB^^wl and fire will soon finish it. The introduction 
|^4fi^V0)^Ll ^''^ the cup system instead of prolonging its 
1I\J5 Hnt/I/^ \\i&, is hastening the end. It permits the bleed- 
nS Br /^ "^^ ^^' ^^ small trees which are too small to 
box by the old wasteful system. Unlike the 
situation in France (see photo, page 6), the 
essential elements of silviculture are disre- 
garded. In France small trees are bled to death only to thin 
the forest, or for other silvicultural reasons. In the illustration 
on page 6 the pine is being bled to death to make room for 
the more valuable cork oak visible on the left. 

In America the owners of the land are after the largest pos- 
sible immediate return. The big trees are boxed, the little trees 
are cupped. Then follow the lumberman and forest fires. Then 
this dry, denuded, and impoverished soil is "real-estated" — that 
is, by glowing advertisements and smooth-tongued agents is sold 
to the unwary newcomer. 

The process has been downward except as to profits received 
by the turpentine magnate, timber baron and land speculator. 
The newcomer, with plow and harrow, starts the upward course, 
but the process is slow and labor and fertilizer and patience are 
essential to final success. In the case of the Everglades the con- 
ditions are reversed. Nfature has not Ijccn robbed. Man begins 
at once with a useless, unproductive morass. By drainage a fer- 
tile soil ^c^nlt^ and tree planting begins. The process is con- 
structive frciin the start, and not destructive. 

It is easy to classify the man who taps a pine tree the size 
of your arm for half a pint of turpentine. It is probably best 



186 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

to let the turpentine era pass. The labor conditions and other 
influences connected with it have not been of a high order, and 
probably never will be. Turpentine will eventually be produced 
svnthetically in the chemical laboratory. The division of these 
lands into small holdings is, after all, a gain, and the planting of 
various kinds of trees will in time bring new industries and add 
variety to the landscape and to the lives of the inhabitants of 
the pinewoods districts. 

It is probably fortunate for the Lower East Coast that the 
pine trees are not profitable turpentine producers. 

Everglade drainage is a theme "worthy the best quality of 
constructive statesmanship." Unfortunately, many of our states- 
men and other government officials represent corporations, capi- 
talists and monopolists engaged in destructive industries, and not 
the men who are making plantations and bettering soil conditions. 

In previous chapters I have mentioned many trees worthy a 
fair trial on Everglade muck. There are two species which at 
til is writing appear to the writer to be full of promise. Both 
are from the East Indies and are well known throughout the 
world as camphor and cajeput. 

I have already referred to cajeput on page 24 of this volume. 

The camphor tree has really long passed the experimental 
stage in South Florida. In recently passing through the central 
and w^estern part of this State I was impressed bv the number, 
size and beauty of camphor trees which have been planted here 
and there for shade and ornament. There is a popular belief 
that the camphor trees near a grove of citrus fruits keep off the 
white fly. This has never been proven, of course, but it is a 
poor popular belief that has not back of it some basis of truth 
or reason. 

There is one camphor tree in Pascoe County called the Ren- 
froe tree, which is five feet in diameter close to the ground and 
seventy feet in height, with a spread of about eighty feet. This 
tree is about twenty-one years old. 

Camphor trees may be had in quantity and at a reasonable 
price at almost any well-conducted Florida nursery. 

187 



THE E\'ERGLADES 

The United States Department of Agriculture has an experi- 
mental camphor plantation near Orange City ( see Camphor Cul- 
tivation in the United States in ^'earbook of the Department 
of Agriculture for I'^IO). The conclusions reached from this 
experiment are that camplior does well in Florida '"on light, 
sandy lands not well suited to general farming;" that tliere "is 
every indication that camphor growing on this land can be made 
a commercial success;" and that "it appears probable that an 




A CAM I'll OK TUKK. 

area of 500 acres will warrant the installing of sufficient ma- 
chiner\- to jn-oduce camjihor at a minimum cost." 

It is safe to say that on fertile, moist, but well-drained soil 
it would yield far richer returns. The camphor tree is excellent 
for windbreaks and hedges and every clipping may bo used in 
the manufacture of camj^hor. 

The camphor tree yields a valual)le wood for chests. For 
this purpose it is e<|ual. if not su])erior. to the iinest red cedar. 

188 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

I have known soldiers returning from the PhiHppines to hold 
their camphor chests, or "ditty boxes," in the highest esteem of 
all their trophies. 

Because of its great usefulness as a drug and in the manu- 
facture of explosives and celluloid, large quantities are consumed. 

It seldom sells for less than fifty cents, and sometimes as 
high as $1.25 per pound, at wholesale. 

Although there is some camphor in several islands of the 
Eastern Seas. Formosa is the main source of supply and the 
Japanese have control of it. 

The cajeput (Melaleuca Icncodcndron) is full of promise for 
the low, moist soil regions of the southernmost part of the State. 
Like the Australian pine, it withstands salt water overflow. In 
temperate regions I know of no tree that will stand salt water 
overflow. In the Tropic^ they can be counted by the dozen. 
The growth of the cajeput on mucky land subject to tidal over- 
flow along the shore of Biscayne Bay has been so rapid that its 
adaptability to such situations cannot be questioned. It grows 
by the side of the Australian pine, and although it cannot equal 
this marvelous grower in rate of growth, it is a close second, 
and the pair in mixture would form a combination difficult to 
duplicate in efficiency for shore plantings in places subject to 
strong sea winds and occasional tidal overflow. 

In Australia this tree is known as the bread-leaved tea-tree. 
The volatile oil yielded by its leaves and twigs is a valuable 
solvent and of great use in medicine. It is commonly applied 
externally in India for rheumatism. It is excellent in place 
of turpentine for stupes. It is used, I have been told, as a basis 
for some massage creams. It is used for many purposes, and 
I have even seen it sold to negroes in the South as a toothache 
remedy. 

The bark of this tree is white and papery on the outside, and 
corky and spongy to a depth of half an inch or more, even on 
small trees. The aromatic leaves and twigs are fine for decora- 
tive garlands. They remain green a long while and emit a 
pleasant fragrance. It belongs to the same order, and is closely 

189 



THE E\' ERG LADES 

related to the genus Eucalyptus, but is superior to any Eucalyptus 
that I know of which would grow under similar conditions. 

The seeds of this tree are unfortunately very minute and 
therefore difficult to sprout. They are, in fact, as fine as finely 
ground red pepper. They must be carefully sprouted under 
cover in some good sprouting medium. 

My trees are now twelve to eighteen feet in height and I 
received the seeds in a letter from Dr. Maiden of Sydney. Aus- 
tralia, about three years ago. 




&L. 



A CiKUUr UF YOUNG C.\.1E1'UT TRKKS, THKKK YKAKS OLD ANIi T\\ KIAE TO 
EIGHTEKX Fl.KT HIGH. 

They are alreadv blooming profusely and yielding an abun- 
dance of seed. The flowers are at times covered with honey 
bees. It is therefore probably a great honey yielder. 

"Several thousand camphor trees have recently been planted 
by the officials in charge of the East Bay Florida ranger station 
at the forest nursery located there, and, according to the state- 



100 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

ment of Forest Supervisor Eldridge, the indications are that this 
valuable tree will do well in this forest, which will prove much 
to this section of the State if this be true." — From February 
Issue of American Forestry. 



191 




CHAPTER XXIX. 

TWO PROMISING BUSH FRUITS FOR FLORIDA. 

HE cultivation of two new and interesting fruits 
is just beginning in the southernmost part of 
Florida. These fruits have been, of course, 
long grown in their native lands, and are sim- 
ply new in the sense that they are little known 
and as yet only slightly grown in a very limited 
area in this country. They are nevertheless 
very valuable fruits, and are destined soon to 
be extensively grown in the regions suitable to their production. 
I refer to Carissa grandiflora and the Surinam cherry. 

Both these plants are shrubs. They are free from disease, 
and are easily grown. In addition to yielding valuable fruits, 
they are highly ornamental. They fruit in mid-winter in this 
climate. As yet the supply of fruit is only sufficient for local 
demands, but no doubt some day they will be shipped to nortliern 
markets, in case they prove equal to the ordeal of transportation. 
Carissa grandiflora* is the amatungula of Xatal. It belongs 
to the Apocynaceae family. It is full of a milky juice, and I 
have read that a near relative of the species in the Senegal regions 
yields caoutchouc. It is also, I believe, closely related to a fruit 
in West Africa called aboh {Valica florida), which might also be 
introduced to advantage into Southern Florida. The carissa is 
evergreen, with beautiful, rich-green, glossy leaves. The flowers 
are large, white and fragrant. The fruit is red and about the 
size of a plum. Its skin is thin, and the seeds are few and 
small. The fruit is acid, and is relished even by people not 
accustomed to eating it. When cooked, it makes a sauce which 
looks and tastes like cranberry. The plant is well supplied with 
formidable thorns, so that it makes a very useful as well as 
beautiful hedge. I believe the fruits could be successfully dried. 



192 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

The carissa may be easily propagated from layers. The lower 
limbs touch the ground, and by covering them with sand, they 
soon take root and may then be easily separated from the parent 
plant. It grows fairly well on poor sand or limestone rock, 
but, like the majority of things, does much better when well fer- 
tilized. It probably will not stand much frost. 




THE CARISSA. 



The second fruit, the Surinam cherry, comes from South 
America. Its scientific name is Eugenia micheli or pitanga. 
Several species of this famous genus yield cherry-like fruits. I 
believe it is called pitanga in Spanish. To this same genus be- 
long the Malay apple, Java plum and Rose apple. The fruits 
of this genus, like several other tropical fruits, have an aromatic 
and slightly turpentine-like flavor. The Surinam cherry is cer- 

193 



THE EVERGLADES 



tainly a delicate and delicious fruit, and is now so common in 
Southern Florida that they can he purchased in season at some 
of the stores. 

The plant is a handsome evergreen sliruh. with glossy leaves. 
The flowers are white and small in size. The fruit is the size of 
a big cherry, red in color, with a seed in the middle about the 




THK SLklNAM CHtKRV. 

size of a cherry seed. There are sometimes two seeds to each 
berry. The seeds do not keep long — in fact, should be planted 
at once. The fruit is very juicy and agreeably acid. It is not 
perfectly round, and is markedly ribbed. Many persons do not 
like it at first because of its turpentine flavor, but those who do 
like them are passionateh- fond of them, and eat them in quan- 
tity with impunity. 

104 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

The plant is easily produced from seed and bears profusely 
in two or three years. Like the carissa, the Svu'inani cherry is 
not particular about the quality of soil in which it grows, and 
since it stands some frost, may be grown over a broad area. The 
Surinam cherry is, however, not so hardy as the carissa. That 
these two fruits will be extensively grown and improved in size 
and quality, I have no doubt. Dr. F. Franceshii, a great author- 
ity on tropical and semi-tropical fruits, refers to the Surinam 
cherry and carissa as follows : 

"Eugenia pitaiiga, from Brazil and Argentina; a tall, com- 
pact growing shrub, with myrtle-like, glossy leaves and pretty 
white flowers ; fruits ribbed, shaped like a small tomato, of the 
brightest scarlet color, and having a peculiar taste, by most people 
preferred to any of the guavas. They make also a first-class 
jelly. Other species of Eugenia from the same region are being 
introduced also, among them E. edulis, having fruits of the size 
of an apricot, and said to be of delicious taste. All of them 
make also very ornamental shrubs and ought to be seen in every 
garden. 

"Carissa grandiflora, from Natal, South Africa; growing not 
over six feet, very bushy and compact, with thick, dark green 
leaves and curious, double-pointed thorns, quite suitable for 
hedges. Flow^ers look like large, pure white jasmines, and have 
the same scent ; fruits oval-shaped, size of an ordinary plum, 
dark crimson in color, and full of a crimson pulp which makes 
delicious jelly. Also this possesses so many points of merit that it 
ought to be in every garden." 



^Description furnished by the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture : 

Carissa grandiflora Amatiiugiilu. 

From Natal, South Africa. 

A food plant of considerable importance in Natal, where it is found 
in large quantities on the market, and from which is made a very valuable 
jelly. The plant, grown in hedge form in and about the city of Durban, 
is a handsome thing; its large white flowers and crimson fruits stand out 
in beautiful contrast with the background of dark green foliage. In order 
to produce a good hedge, the young seedlings, when from three to six 
inches high, should be transplanted from the seed bed and set either in a 
single row one foot apart or in two parallel rows, alternating two feet 
apart in each row. (F.) 

195 



From the Everglade Magazine, February, ic^/j. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



SHADE FOR TROPICAL FRUITS. 




HE horticulturist of the North usually plants 
his trees wide apart. Some favor one distance, 
some another; some plant one way, some an- 
other. The space between the trees is usually 
kept in good tilth or is utilized for field crops 
or sown to. a cover crop to protect and enrich 
the soil. 

In horticulture, as well as in silviculture, 
what applies in the Xorth does not apply in the Tropics. A 
Northerner often works to a disadvantage, being prejudiced by 
Northern notions. 

In Italy, for instance, much is crowded upon an acre. There 
may be mulberries to yield leaves for silk worms, willows and 
poplars and other trees are lopped and pollarded for basket mate- 
rial, fagots and fodder, grapevines are twined to the trees and 
wherever there is a foot of vacant soil a vegetable of some kind is 
grown. Fruit trees are grown on trellises to economize space 
and improve the quality of the product. In fact, throughout the 
world all gradations of husbandry may be found, from the loose, 
wide-open orchard plan to the densely planted forest. 

I believe that there is a sort of middle ground where forester 
and horticulturist can meet to advantage in the tropics. In the 
wide-open orchard plan much cultivation is necessary to give the 
results attained by the silviculturists without the use of hoe, har- 
row or plow. The silviculturist plants close and works for a 
canopy over the soil as soon as possible. In the majority of 
fruit groves a canopy is not formed until the trees reach maturity. 
A canopy of foliage not only protects the soil from sun and wind 
and rain, hut feeds it with humus. This undisturbed luinius on 



106 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

the surface is the home of many beneficial living things, such as 
fungi which cause decay of organic matter, and earth worms and 
toads and other animals which work for good. 

The richness in this humus comes, of course, in part from 
the air, but the mineral ingredients were garnered by the tree 
roots from the deeper layers of the soil and deposited on the sur- 
face. This leaf fall is periodic in the North, but in the Tropics 
it is almost continuous. 

If protected from pelting rains, scorching suns and shattering 
winds by half-shade, I believe that northern vegetables can be 
successfully grown in South Florida, and the Tropics in general, 
in summer. They can be grown to better advantage in winter 
if thus protected, and I believe that several northern plants which 
as yet have not been successfully grown in the Tropics will thrive 
if grown in half-shade. 

In the West Indies there are many acres of land called "ruin- 
ate," land which was once forest covered. This forest was cut, 
the land was cropped, it lost its freshness and fertility, it became 
in time dead, literally dead, because its condition was such that 
beneficial fungi and animals could not live in it. It seems unable 
to recover itself. Although once covered by a dense forest and 
rich in humus reeking with fertility, it remains dead under the 
blighting influences of a strong sun, dry winds and the erosive 
and pelting action of heavy downpours of rain. Plant it to 
quick-growing leguminous trees, shade the ground, protect it 
from fire so that humus will collect, and in time its fertility will 
return. 

This half -shade is produced by using cheesecloth, as is com- 
mon with tobacco in Cuba, or slatted sheds, such as are used for 
pineapples in parts of Florida, or by planting certain trees, c.z ':■: 
common with cofifee, chocolate, vanilla, black pepper, nutmegs, 
etc.. in many parts of the Tropics. I believe the latter method 
the best for the majority of cases, and at the end of this article 
will mention some of the trees which may be used for this 
purpose. 

197 



THE EMiRGLADES 

Some of the best crops of tlie tropics are produced in small, 
secluded clearings. The best tropical pastures are usually 
shaded. Half-shade is always necessary for nurseries. 

The best results may be had from planting in compact groups 
and not singly. This applies to orchard trees, as well as to trees 
for ornament. It is best to do this, even if some trees must be 
sacrificed later. The best bearing grapefruit grove that I know 
of is close planted and forms a complete canopy. No cultivation 
of the soil is necessary. The fertilizer is scattered over the sur- 
face of the ground. This grove, by the way, is on grapefruit 
roots on the edge of the Everglades. 

The party who has charge of my lime grove is a colored man 
of more than ordinary intelligence. After years of experience I 
have learned to listen to his statements. He lives practically 
alone among his trees. He is seldom bothered by the opinions 
of other men. His conclusions are his own. They are the prod- 
uct of the tliorns and rocks with which lie toils. "Limes." he 
says, "and I guess other things, too, must be planted close to- 
gether, so that the ground is soon covered. The lime is a half- wild 
crop, anvwaw and the less you prune or meddle with it the I»etter." 
Many tropical crops are like the blueberry of the North. They 
resist civilization. My man believes in jilanting trees close and 
in doing nothing further except to cut the vines and other weeds, 
and to scatter fertilizer on the soil whenever it is needed. In 
planting close in group form and supi)lying here and there suffi- 
cient windbreaks, one accomplishes in i)art what is accomplisiied 
by the planting of nurse or shelter trees, as is common with 
coiTee and chocolate. 

In union there is strength, which ai)plies to trees as well as 
men, and in the Tro])ics protcctiou is the keynote of success. 
This applies to the North, as well, Init in the South we have 
trees which are sluidc dcinandcrs. in the North our trees are 
either //V//// dcmmuicrs or shade ciidiircrs. l)ut in the Tropics 
many trees do not thrive without some shade. 

T can fullv realize also whv some orchardists in the Tropics 
will not allow a plow or even a hoe in their groves. Good fruit 

108 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

soils in South Florida are usually loose enough, if not too loose, 
so that cultivation is not only useless, but harmful. 

I am sure it pays to plant a large percentage of our tropical 
trees in compact groups with windbreaks as well, and many ten- 
der crops will not succeed without the shade of nurse trees. 
"Plant in a well-drained soil rich in humus, partially shaded and 
well protected from the winds," is a common direction for tender 
crops. 

In the North the majority of our trees have thin, transparent 
leaves, which transmit the light. In the Tropics many have thick, 
shiny leaves which reflect the light. For shelter and nurse trees 
the loose foliaged, thin-leaved kinds are best, especially those 
with leaves which close at night, of the leguminous order, which 
also capture and conserve the nitrogen in the air in the interstices 
of the soil. 

For windbreaks the hard-foliaged types are good, such as 
the sapodilla. which never blows over if its roots have half a 
chain^c. and the mangrove, which fringes the shore of the sea, 
grows in the water and repels even the fury of the ocean waves. 

In some parts of the Tropics rains are so violent that they 
strip the tender leaves from trees or level weaklings to the 
ground. 

I have seen a young avocado grove ruined in a couple of days 
by the wind because the planter had neglected to stake the trees. 
The swaying of the trees makes a hole around the butt close to 
the ground, so that if the root is actually not twisted or broken 
it soon becomes parched. 

I doubt if any of those quick-growing shade or nurse trees 
are moisture conservers. Of course, the humus in the ground 
and the shade check evaporation, but this is probably more than 
offset by the immense amount of water transpired by a quick 
growing tree in a tropical country. 

The limbs and trunks of trees should never be exposed to the 
direct rays of the sun. if it is possible to avoid it. Many sick 
trees are suft'ering from "bark scorching" and "sun cracks," 
although this is not nearly as common in the Tropics as one 

199 



THE E\'ERGLADES 

would expect. One must prune carefully in the Tropics, since 
some trees, such as the lime, will dieback when pruned. 

Mr. H. F. McMillan, in a work entitled "A Handbook of 
Tropical Gardening and Planting," says : "That suitable shade 
trees, thinly planted and properly attended to, have beneficial 
efifects, physically and cheniicallw u])on most crops in the Tropics 
is a well-established fact. They help to preserve moisture, aerate 
the soil by means of their deep-feeding roots, which bring plant 
food from the under-strata of the soil, to be returned again in the 
form of mulch by the fallen leaves. Leguminous trees are thus 
preferable for various reasons: (1) They are usually fast grow- 
ers; (2) their thin, feathery foliage does not form too dense a 
shade; (3) their leaves have often the habit of closing up at 
night, and (4) many of the family have the property of col- 
lecting free nitrogen by means of nodules on their rootlets." 

We have two native leguminous trees which might be useful 
for this purpose: Ichthyomcthia piscipula — the Florida Dogwood 
and Lysiloma latisiliqita — the Wild Tamarind. 

Pithecolohium diilce, or Guamachil, grows most luxuriantly in 
South Florida and is especially fitted for this purpose. 

The Australian pine and Eucalyptus are wholly unfit. Few, 
if any, plants will grow in their shade. Various species of 
Cedrela (Spanish cedar) and Szveitcnia (mahogany) have been 
suggested for this purpose, and it is more than likely that they 
may fill the bill, any shortcomings which they might have being 
offset by the value of timber yielded. 

Many trees might be mentioned fur this purixisc, and the 
following is a list of the leguminous trees which the ofiice of 
Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction of the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture have for distribution while they last : 

Albiszia Mohiccana — A large leguminous tree, native of the 
Molucca Islands and widely distributed through insular and con- 
tinental India. Ai)pcars to be well adapted to avenue planting in 
Southern California and Morida because of its delicate, feathery 
foliage and ornamental flowers produced in small, globular heads. 
Cassia graudis — A tall, leguminous tree attaining a heigiit of 
fiftv-five feet ami jjnxlucing a very handsome, fine-grained wood. 

200 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

Occurs in many parts of tropical America, where it is frequently 
planted as an avenue or shade tree on account of its dense foliage. 
The flowers are produced in April and are very handsome. Will 
not stand frost. 

Ccratonia siligna, Carob — Dwarf evergreen tree, twentv feet 
high, with thick trunk and shiny leathery leaves. The female 
trees produce dark brown pods, about four to ten inches in 
length, commonly known as St. John's Bread. These are eaten 
for their sweetish pulp. They also form a very nutritious food 
for cattle. 

Erythriiia Iiidica — Useful hedge tree of rapid growth, thirty 
feet high. The foliage provides excellent fodder for stock and 
the light wood is used for implements. Easily propagated from 
cuttings of any size. For testing as hedge plant and for wind- 
breaks in the South and Southwest. Several species of Ery- 
thrina are used for nurse trees throughout the Tropics. 

Erythrina lithospcnna — Medium-sized, soft-wooded tree 
with showy, papilionaceous flowers. Much planted in tropical 
countries for shade in coffee and cacao plantations and for its 
value as a soil improver. 

Hacinatoxylmn Cainpcchiaiiiun, Logzvood — Tall, leguminous 
tree with racemes of handsome yellow flowers, rich in honey. 
The brownish-red heart wood is useful in turning. Its principal 
economic product is the valuable black dye extracted from it. 
Recommended for trial as a shade tree. 

Iiiga cditlis — Medium-sized, leguminous tree occurring south- 
ward from Central America to the Amazon valley, producing 
curiously-shaped pods about an inch thick and one to two feet 
long, usually twisted and crooked. These seeds are surrounded 
by an acidulous, whitish, edible pulp of rather indifferent flavor. 
Two species of this genus are used in Porto Rico for shading 
coffee. 

Pithccolohhnn dnlce — Thorny, leguminous tree, native of 
Mexico. Rapid grower, frequently used as a shade tree for 
coffee or cacao. Produces long pods in which the seeds are en- 
closed in a sweetish pulp, which the natives are very fond of. 

201 



THE EVERGLADES 

The bark of the tree contains considerable tannin, 
mended as an ornamental. 



Recom- 



Pithccolobium Soman, Rain Tree — Medium-sized, deciduous 
tree, with spreading branches and pods resembling those of the 
mesquite bean, and well liked as fodder by cattle and horses. 
The tree flowers in early spring before bursting into foliage. 
For testing for ornamental and economic use in Florida and 
California. 




COFFEE SHADED BY PITHECOLOBIUM SAMAN TREES IN PORTO RICO. 



Tolnifcra Pereirae, Peru Balsam — -Tall, leguminous tree with 
thick brown bark, glossy foliage and ornamental yellow flowers. 
The commercial balsam is obtained from incisions in the bark 
and is very fragrant, with a sweetish taste. 

And many more of a similar nature too numerous to mention 
awaiting experimentation at the hands of some patient, long- 
lived indiviihial i>r individuals. 

202 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

A LIST OF THE TREES OF SOUTH FLORIDA, NATR^E 
AND IXTRODUCED. 

The following list is of course by no means complete. Florida 
is a land of many flowers, fruits and forests. It is difficult at 
times to distinguish between a shrub and a tree. New trees are being 
introduced into this country almost every day, and of the great 
number of tropical trees in the world there are many which have 
never been tried and which will probably grow here as well, if not 
better, than in their native land. 




WEST INDI.\N ALMOND TREES BENT BY THE WIND. 



ORDER CYCADACEAE. CYCAS FAMILY. 

Cycas revoluta. Sago Palm. 

To this same order belongs our common coontie or comptie 
(Zamia Floridana), a valuable starch-yielding plant, which might be 
used to advantage in the manufacture of grain alcohol. 

203 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

Sabina Barbadensis. Pencil Cedar. 

Formerly called Juniperus Barbadensis. 

The famous pencil cedar of Florida. Some years ago forests 
of cedar and live oak were reserved in Florida and elsewhere on 
the coast to insure a future supply of these valuable timbers for our 
navy. These were, of course, abandoned when steel rejjlaced wood 
for this purpose. These, however, were our tirst national reserves. 

Other conifers in cultivation are: 
Araucaria excelsa. Norfolk Island Pine. 

Cedrus Deodara. Deodar Cedar. 

According to Reasoner, this tree succeeds everywhere in the 
South. It is very similar to the cedar of Lebanon and the Atlas cedar. 

PANDANACEAE. PANDANUS FAMILY. 
Pandanus utilis. Screw Pine, 



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A MAUdCA.NV TKEK IN' THK P.AH\Ar\S. 

ORDER POACEAE. GRASS FAMILY. 
Bambos spp. Bamboo. 

Several species are growing here and the government has started 
a bamboo farm at Brooksville, Florida. Bambos vulgaris is abundant 
along water courses in the West Indies, forming stately groves. 
Since it loves moist stream banks it will, no doubt, be a great favorite 

205 



THE EVERGLADES 

ORDER PINACEAE. PINE FAMILY. 
Pinus clausa. Sand Pine. 

Coast of East Florida on sand dunes. 
Pinus Caribaea. Cuban Pine. 

The comnum timl)er pine of South Florida. Grows also in West 
Indies and Central America. Also called Pinus EUiottii — Slash Pine. 
This pine and the Longleaf or Yellow Pine yield the naval stores of 
our South. It is generally believed that resin will not run satisfac- 
torily in Tropical Florida. The wood resists sea worms better than 
any of our native pines. 

ORDER JUNIPERACEAE. JUNIPER FAMILY. 
Taxodium distichum. Bald Cypress. 

A valuable timber tree. 
Taxodium imbricarium. Pond Cypress. 

A species recently named by Harper. 




AN AVENUE OF THE WEST INDIAN ALMOND, A FAVORITE SHADE TREE IN THE 
WEST INDIES. NOT SUIILAR TO NOR RELATED TO THE ALMOND OF COMMERCE. 

Thuja occidentalis. Arborvitae. 

Various cultivated varieties of this tree commonly planted for 
shade and ornament. Probably does not extend naturally southward 
further than the mountains of North Carolina. 
Sabina Virginiana. Red Cedar. 

The word "sabina," corresponding to the English savin, is a 
better name than the old name Juniperus. Sabina is the common 
name of the following species in Cuba and Santo Domingo. 

204 



THE EVERGLADES 



>Palmettoes 



for Everglade planting. It throws a heavy shade and is a fine pro- 
tective cover for poultry and social birds. 

ORDER ARECACEAE. PALM FAMILY. 

Thrinax Floridana 

Thrinax microcarpa 

Thrinax Keyensis 

Cocothrinax jucunda 

Sabal palmetto 

Serenoa arborescens 
The leaves of these palmettoes are highly valued in some coun- 
tries for thatch, also for mats, baskets, etc. Tlie leaves of the "Pond 
Thatch" in the P)<i]iamas last longer than shingles. Thrinax Keyensis 
is good for this purpose. When timber gets scarcer, they will be 
more extensively used, just as straw is used on even expensive build- 
ings in Holland. 




THE I.IVIC 0.\K. 



PALMS. 

Pseudophoenix Sargentii. 

Southern Keys and the r.ahania-. 
Getting very scarce. 

206 



Sargent Palm. 

Resembles the date palm. 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

Roystonea regia. Royal Palm. 

This majestic tree reaches its optimal growth in Cuba, of 
which country it is emblematic; it adorns the Cuban two-cent postage 
stamp and coat-of-arms and its rich berries fatten many swine for 
their Christmas festivities. Extensively planted in South Florida 
and appears to be indigenous in several patches in the neighborhood 
of the Everglades. 
Cocos nu«-ifera. Coco Palm. 

One of the most beautiful and useful members of the plant 
world, yielding food, drink and shelter to many primitive peoples of 
the world. This tree grows in sandy soil along the seashores of 
tropical Florida and although most of the nuts were planted by the 




SEMINOLE INDIANS COMING TO TOWN 
WITH VENISON AND SKINS. 

hand of man, undoubtedly some have sprung from seeds which have 
washed ashore and been buried in seaweed and sand on the beach. 
The original home of the coco palm is probably not known and since 
it grows as well in South Florida as elsewhere, it deserves to be listed 
at least as a naturalized member of our silva. Rabbits are fond of 
tlie j-oung sprouts. They must be protected in youth. 
Phoenix dactylifera. Date Palm. 

Phoenix Canariensis. The Canary Island Date Palm. 

Washingtonia filamentosa. Fanleaf Palm. 

207 



THE E\'ERGLADES 

MUSCAEAE. BANANA FAMILY. 

The banana is, by some people, called a tree, because of its size, 
but according to the accepted definition of a tree, the stem must be 
woody in nature. 

CASAURINACEAE. BEEFWOOD FAMILY. 

Catuarina equisetifolia Auatralian Pine 

A tree of the East Indies and Australia, l)ut now common 
throughout the tropics. Grows close to the sea, and has been used in 




AN AVENUF, OF ROYAL PALMS — AXOTHKR FINli TKKK FOR MIXKY SOIL. 

the ti.xation of moving dunes along the seashore. It is usually called 
Australian Pine, but a patch of them on Biscayne Bay is known as 
the "cedars." The tree has become naturalized in South Florida and 
young trees of this species are growing here and there on the shore, 
the seeds of which have no doubt been washed ashore. It is a 
valuable addition to the silva of the State of Florida. Should be 
extensively planted for timber. It withstands the gales and yields a 
wood like oak. 

208 



AXD S(.UTil]LkX FLCRJDA 

JUGLANDACEAE. WALNUT FAMILY. 
Hicoria pecan. Pecan. 

The king of nuts extensively cultivated in improved form in 
North Florida. Both the words "hickory" and "pecan" are probably 
of Indian origin. It is quite probable that some Spanish tree names 
such a "Ucare" are corruptions of hickory since hickory has been 
extensively used by West Indian peoples for barrel and hogshead 
hoops. 

The pecan grows well in Florida, but apparently does not flourish 
south of central part of the State. 




ALEURITES TRILOCA THK CANDLE- 
NUT. HAS FRUITED IN SOUTH 
FLORIDA AND IS A VALUABLE TREE. 



MYRICACEAE. BAYBERRY FAMILY. 
Morella cerifera. Wax Myrtle. 

SALICACEAE. WILLOW FAMILY. 
Salix longipes. Long Stalk Willow. 

FAGACEAE. BEECH FAMILY. 
Quercus Virginiana. Live Oak. 

Excellent timl)er tree, common in Florida, also Mexico, Cuba and 

209 



THE EX'ERGLADES 

Central America. These sturd}-, broadspreading live oaks draped 

with Fhirida moss form a very characteristic feature of the Florida 

landscape. 

Quercus myrtifolia. Myrtle Leaved Oak. 

ARTOCARPACEAE. MULBERRY FAMILY. 
Morus rubra. Red Mulberry. 

Common throughout the State. 

Morus nigra. Black Mulberry. 

Commonly planted for its large, black, juicy fruit. Pruljably 
originally came from Persia. 




.\ .M.\STIC TRKK IN THK H.VMMOCK. 
(PHOTO BY DR. K. .M. HARPKR) 



Morus alba. White Mulberry. 

I'rom China. Introduced mainly for silk-worm food. 

Broussonetia papyrifera. Paper Mulberry. 

l-roni Ja]ian. Common thrcnighout the State. 

Ficus aurea. Golden Fig. 

Soulii iinrida and the West Indies. .V striking weed tree in the 
forest, (irows tirst on limbs of other trees, throws down aerial roots 

210 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

to the ground and finally chokes and kills the tree upon which it 

started. 

Ficus populnea. Poplarleaf Fig. 

South Florida and the West Indies. Easily propagated from cut- 
tings and might prove a satisfactory shade tree for South Florida. 
Ficus carica. The Fig. 

Cultivated throughout the South for its fruits. 
Ficus nitida. Spanish Laurel. 

A beautiful shade tree in Nassau and Key West. Also common 
in Cuba. A very satisfactory tree for roadside planting. 
Ficus religiosa. Sacred Bo of India. 

Growing in favor as a shade tree in Tropical Florida. Very com- 
mon avenue shade tree in Cuba. 
Ficus altissima. East Indian Rubber. 

]\Iakes excellent growth in Southern Florida. 
Ficus glomerata. Cluster Fig. 

Of India. Grows well and bears well in Southern Florida. 
Artocarpus integrifolia. The Jack Fruit. 

This tree, similar to the Bread Fruit, has fruited in South 
Florida. 

ULMACEAE. ELM FAMILY. 
Trema Floridana. 

POLYGONACEAE. BUCKWHEAT FAMILY. 
Coccolobis uvifera. Sea Grape. 

Common on the seashore of Southern Florida, also West Indies. 
Coccolobis laurifolia. Pigeon Plum. 

South Florida and West Indies. A fine tree in the hammocks of 
Southern Florida. (A hammock is a rich hardwood jungle. It is 
probably an old Indian word and the old spelling "hamak" is some- 
times still used.) 

ALLIONIACEAE. FOUR-O'CLOCK FAMILY. 
Pisonia obtusata. Blolly. 

Sea beaches and shores of brackish lagoons. Tropical Florida. 

ANONACEAE. CUSTARD APPLE FAMILY. 

Anona glabra. Custard or Pond-Apple. 

Anona squamosa. Sugar Apple or Sweet Sop. 

Anona muricata. Sour Sop. 

Anona reticulata. Custard Apple, called also BuUocks's, 

Heart or Corazon. 

Anona cherimolia. Cherimoyer. 

211 



THE EVERGLADES 

The fruit of the latter is very highly prized in Spanish-American 
countries. It can be budded on our native Pond-apple. The wood of 
Pond-apple is very light and useful for net floats and stoppers in 
place of cork. Canangium odoratum of this order, a few of whicli 
have been planted in South Florida, yields the famous ilang-ilang 
perfume. To this order belong several important genera, such as 
Uvaria and Rollinia, which yield valuable fruits. 



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THE SUGAR APl'LE. 



MAGNOLIACEAE. MAGNOLIA FAMILY. 

Magnolia glauca. Magnolia or Sweet Bay. 

A beautiful tree which should be more extensively planted. 
Grows well on Everglade soil. 



CAPPARIDACEAE. CAPER FAMILY. 
Capparis Jamaicensis. Florida Caper. 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

MORINGACEAE. HORSERADISH TREE FAMILY. 
Moringa moringa. Horseradish Tree. 

The root of this tree, finely scraped, is eaten as horseradish. 
The Oil of Ben, used by perfumers, is extracted from the seeds of 
this tree. 

AMYGDALACEAE. PLUM FAMILY. 

Chrysobalanus Icaca. Coco-plum. 

Amygdalus Persica. Peach. 

Laurocerasus sphaerocarpa. West India Cherry. 

Eriobotrya Japonica. Loquat. 

LEGUMINOSEAE. BEAN FAMILY. 
Pithecolobium unguis-cati. Florida Cat's Claw. 

Pithecolobium dulce. Gaumachil. 

One of the fastest-growing trees ever introduced into Florida. It 
grows five feet in height per year, on rocky land. Grows well in 
regions of very slight rainfall. The pulp of the pod is eaten by the 
poorer classes of Mexico. Pods are a good feed for cattle, and the 
bark contains twenty-five per cent tannin and is therefore exten- 
sively used for tanning purposes in regions where it is plentiful. 
Pithecolobium saman. Rain Tree or Quango. 

Similar to the above. 
Pithecolobium Gaudeloupense. Goatbush. 

This is a native bush, but sometimes reaches tree proportions. 
It is valuable because it is the first hardwood leguminous shrub to 
appear in the pine woods. It enriches the soil by its litter and 
paves the way for other hardwoods. It marks the beginning of the 
transition from pinewoods to hammock conditions. 
Albizzia Julibrissin. 

A favorite shade tree in the Southeastern United States. 
Albizzia Lebbek. Siris or Lebbek Tree. 

Called Woman's Tongue in Nassau. 
Lysiloma latisiliqua. Wild Tamarind. 

Common in places on the Keys. Wood, heavy, hard, tough, 
close-grained, rich brown, tinged with red. 
Vachellia Farnesiana. Yellow Opoponax, 

Called also Popinac. The flowers are used for perfume. 
Leucaena glanca. 
Mimosa spp. 
Dalbergia Sissoo. Sissoo Tree of India. 

It is a species of this same genus that yields one variety of 
"Rosewood." 

213 



THE EXERGLADES 



Tamarindus Indica. 
Ceratonia siliqua. 
Haematoxylon Campechianum. 

Grows well on dry, rocky ridges. 
Cassia fistula. 

A favorite ornamental tree. 
Delonix regia. 

A favorite shade tree. 



Tamarind. 

St. John's Bread or Carob. 

Logwood. 

Shower of Gold. 

Poinciana Tree. 




THE WILD TAMARIND. 

Ichthyomethia piscipula. Jamaica Dogwood. 

A common and very valuable timber tree for South Florida, 
Might be used to advantage as a shade and ornamental. Grows 
quickly, has an abundance of pea-like flowers in clusters which honey 
l)ees are fond of. As the name indicates, it is a fish poison. The 
back and twigs are bruised and lowered in a basket into the water. 
-V poison is dissolved which stupefies fish that comes near it. They 
float to the surface and are easily captured. This tree grows well 
from seeds and its prDpagation should be encouraged. 
Bauhinia spp. 

Several species. Jjcauiiful, ornaiiuntal small trees. 



v^ajan cajan. 

Makes a small l)ut usefnl tree, 
as leaves enrich the soil. 
Erythrina arborea. 



Pigeon Pea. 

I'iiultr\- arc fond of its seeds and 



214 




A CEURKLA TKEE— GROWN FROM A CUTTING. RATE OF GROWTH TO DATE, TWQ 

FEET PER MONTH. 



THE E\"ERGLADES 



ZYGOPHYLLACEAE. 



Guaiacum sanctum. 

Ver}- hard, slow-growini 



CALTROP FAMILY. 

Lignum Vitae. 



wood. 



RUTACEAE. RUE FAMILY. 



Fagara fagara. 
Fagara flava. 

\'alucd fur timber in the Bahamas 
liandles and furniture. 
Fagara clava-Herculis. 
Fagara coriacea. 
Amyris elemifera. 

Wood heavy, hard, strong, close 
duralde: light orange in color. 
Amyris maritima. 
Amyris balsamifera. 
Vitrus vulgaris. 
Citrus aurantium. 
Citrus limonium. 
Citrus limetta. 
Citrus medica. 
Citrus decumanna. 
Citrus nobilis. 
Citrus Japonica. 



Wild Lime, 

Yellow wood. 

Good for plane stocks, tool 

Prickly Ash. 

Torchwood. 

;rained; very resinous, very 



Bitter Sweet Orange. 

Sweet Orange. 

Lemon. 

Lime. 

Citron. 

Grapefruit, Pomelo, or Shaddock. 

Tangerine. 

Kumquat. 



SIMARUBACEAE. QUASSIA FAMILY. 

Simarouba glauca. Paradise Tree. 

South Florida and West Indies. A pretty, quick-growing tree in 
the hammocks. Would make a handsome avenue tree. 
Bursera simaruba. Gumbo-Limbo. 

Suutii r'hirida and West Indies. Grows easily from a cutting or 
large limb stuck in the ground, frequently used in this way for live 
fence posts. Grows very quickly and has a very striking, bronzy 
red trunk, with papery bark. The term gumbo-limbo is probablj' a 
negro corruption of the term gum-elemi. Called "ganiolimie" in the 
Bahamas, which is probably a corruption of gum-elemi. 

MELIACEAE. MAHOGANY FAMILY. 

Melia azedarach. China Berry. 

Called also "Lilaila." in the nurlhcrn part of the State and 
along the Gulf Coast a variety of this tree, umbraculiformis or 
"Umbrella China Tree," or "Texas Uml)rella Tree," is the favorite 
tree for shade and ornament. Although a native of Persia, is now 
naturalized in the Southern United States. 



216 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

Swietenia mahagoni. Mahogany. 

Called also madeira, the latter word being simply the Spanish 
for "wood." Common on the Keys and parts of the southern main- 
land. The king of all woods. Something ought to be done to 
encourage the perpetuation of this, our choicest native hardwood, in 
the only part of the mainland of the United States where it can 
possibly grow. 




A RUBBER TREE KILLING A COCO PALM. WILD RUBBER TREES ARE PER- 
NICIOUS WEEDS. THE SEED IS DROPPED BY A BIRD IN THE FORK OF 
THE TRUNK OR IN THE CREVICE OF THE BARK. IT SPROUTS, ITS ROOTS 
RUN DOWN THE TRUNK TO THE GROUND. IN TIME IT CHOKES TO 
DEATH THE TREE WHICH SUPPORTED IT IN YOUTH. 



Cedrela Sinensis. 
Cedrela toona. 

The toon tree of India, called Red Cedar in Queensland. 
Cedrela odorata. Spanish Cedar. 

217 



THE EVERGLADES 

EUPHORBIACEAE. SPRUCE FAMILY. 

Drypetes lateriflora. Florida Plum. 

Also called "white-wood." South Florida and West Indies. 
Drypetes Keyensis. Guiana Plum. 

Also called "white-wood." South Florida and West Indies. 
Gymnanthes lucida. Crabwood. 

Southern Florida and West Indies. Some say this wood is 
poisonous. It is, however, a very pretty wood and is often used in 
the manufacture of canes, paper-knives and similar articles. 
Ricinus T?bmmunis. Castor Oil Tree. 

Attains the size of a small tree in South Florida. Valuable plant. 
Oil is very useful, seed pumice is a valuable fertilizer and the plant 
is not exhaustive to the soil. 

Hura crepitans. Sand Box Tree. 

Manihot manihot. Cassava. 

Aleurites triloba. Candlenut Tree. 

Hippomane manicinella. Manchineel. 

Southern Florida and the West Indies. A tree to be shy of; for- 
tunately not common on the mainland. Poisonous to the touch to 
many people, producing a distressing dermatitis worse than poison 
ivy. It is called "guao" in Cuba, and I have known persons who 
have handled it without knowing sufifer agonies with face and hands 
a solid mass of large blisters. It has a small fruit of pleasant ap- 
pearance which might be eaten by children with dire results. 



SPONDIACEAE. SUMAC FAMILY. 

Metopium metopium. Poison Wood. 

Very common in Southern Florida. Poisonous, and when bruised 
exudes a gum which blackens the trunk of the tree. One of the first 
trees to come up after hammock land has been cut and burnt. 
Mangifera Indica. Mango. 

Extensively planted in the southern countries, producing an 
abundance of choice fruits, some of the recent imported and im- 
proved varieties ranking with the choicest of our fruits. At the same 
time a valuable shade and ornamental tree. 

Anacardium occidentale. Cashew Apple. 

Cashew Nut. 
Spondias dulcis. Otahaite Apple. 

Spondias purpurea. Scarlet or Spanish Plum. 

Schinus molle. Pepper Tree. 

Phyllanthus (Cicca) distichus. Gooseberry Tree. 

218 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

AQUIFOLIACEAE. HOLLY FAMILY. 
Ilex Cassene. Dahoon. 

CELASTRACEAE. STAFF TREE FAMILY. 
Gyminda Grisebachii. False Boxwood. 

Schafferia frutescens. Boxwood or Yellow Wood. 

ACERACEAE. MAPLE FAMILY. 
Acer rubrium. Red Maple. 

SAPINDACEAE. SOAP BERRY FAMILY. 
Sapindus saponaria. Soap Berry. 

Exothea paniculata. Inkwood Ironwood. 

Wood ver}- hard and heavy. Used for tool handles, etc. 




A B.\MIin() CiKOVE IN JAPAN — A FINE TREE FOR MUCKY SOIL. 



Hyperlate trifoliata. White Ironwood. 

Wood used in shipbuilding in Bahamas. Berries edible. 
Cupania glabra. 
Blighia sapida. 

Formerly known as Cupania edulis, is the Akee of Africa and 
Jamaica. This tree has fruited at the Sub-Tropical Gardens. The 
white covering of the seeds is a wholesome vegetable; the rest of 
the fruit is poisonous, so that great care must be exercised in using it. 
Melicocca bijuga. Genip. 

Pulp edible. Nuts in Venezuela are roasted and eaten like chest- 



nuts. 



219 



THE EX'ERGLADES 

FRANGULIACEAE. BUCKTHORN FAMILY. 

Rhamnidium ferreum. Black Ironwood. 

Colubrina reclinata. Nakedwood. 

Reynosia latifolia. Darling Plum. 

Fruit edible. 

MALVACEAE. MALLOW FAMILY. 
Hibiscus tiliaceus. Mahoe. 

Thespesia populnea. 

'J'liis tree is called "majagua de Florida" in Cuba. 
Gossypium religiosum. Tree Cotton. 

Ceiba pentandra. Silk Cotton Tree. 

CANELLACEAE. WILD CINNAMON FAMILY. 
Canella Winteriana. Cinnamon Bark or White Wood. 

CLUSIACEAE. BALSAM TREE FAMILY. 
Clusia flava. 
Mammea Americana. Mammee Apple. 

PAPAYACEAE. PAPAW FAMILY. 
Carica papaya. Papaw. 

BIXACEAE. BIXA FAMILY. 
Bixa Orellana. Annatta. 

A small tree yielding an orange-colored dj'e, used for butter 
color. 

PROTEACEAE. PROTEA FAMILY. 

Grevillea robusta. Sheoak from Australia. 

FAMILY LAURACEAE. LAUREL FAMILY. 

Persea gratissima, aquacate, avocado, avocato, alligator pear, butter 

pear, midshipman's butter, palta, etc. 

A salad fruit. .\ species, P. sylvestris, grows wild in Cuba. 
Practically naturalized in South Florida. E.xtensively cultivated for 
home consumption and shipment Xorth. Several improved varieties 
propagated by budding. 
Persea borbonia. Red Bay. 

Common throughout blnrida. Called sometimes "I'lorida nialK^g- 
any," but should never be confounded with the true niahogan\' which 
grows on the Keys. 
Persea pubescens. Swamp Bay. 

The term "hay" sometimes applied to trees may come from the 
French haie, meaning berry; it may have to do with the color of the 
wood, although the word bay in this sense is usually only applied to 
horses and in the case of "bay-wood" sometimes applied to mahog- 

220 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

any bay maj^ refer to the "Bay Islands" in the Gulf of Honduras, a 

great mahogany center. 

Ocotea Catesbyana. Lancewood. 

A very valuable wood. 
Misantica triandra. 

One tree 18 inches in diameter and a few small ones found by 
Aliss Olivia Rodham in the Brickell Hammock, near Miami. Iden- 
tified by C. S. Sargent. Broad-topped, handsome tree, native to Cuba. 
Cinnamomum camphora. Camphor Tree. 

Grows well throughout the State. Well-established plantations 
of this tree in the proper locations would probably in time bring- 
large returns. 

According to a recent report citrus groves with camphor planted 
here and there are not infested with white-fly. 
Cinnamomum cassia. Chinese Cinnamon. 

A magnificent shelter tree, very dense and of C]uick growth. Will 
grow throughout the State. 
Laurus nobilis. Apollo's Laurel. 

PUNICACEAE. POMEGRANATE FAMILY. 
Punica granatam. Pomegranate. 

TERMINALIACEAE. WHITE MANGROVE FAMILY. 
Conocarpus erecta. Buttonwood. 

Southern Florida. Chiefly along salt shores. Highly prized for 
fuel. The best fuel 1 know of, since it makes great heat and almost 
no smoke. 
Bucida buceras. Black Olive Tree. 

Ke^'S and West Indies. 
Laguncularia racemosa. White Mangrove 

or Buttonwood. 

South Florida and West Indies. Muddy shores, common. 
Terminalia cattappa. West Indian Almond. 

Common West Indian shade tree. 

MYRTACEAE. MYRTLE FAMILY. 
Eugenia buxifolia. Gurgeon Stopper. 

Spanish Stopper. 
South Florida and West Indies. 
Eugenia monticola. Stopper 

White Stopper 
Southern Florida. 
Eugenia Garberi. Garber Stopper. 

South Florida and West Indies. 
Eugenia procera. Red Stopper. 

Keys. 

221 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

Eugenia jambos. Rose-Apple. 

A common introduced species; although a native of India it is 
naturalized in the West Indies. Eugenia Michcli is the much-prized 
Surinam Cherry in Dade County. 
Eugenia longipes. 

There are many species of Eugenia in South America whicli yield 
valuable fruits. 

Anamomis dichotoma. Naked Stopper. 

South Florida. 
Chytraculia chytraculia. Stopper. 

South Florida and West Indies. 
Psidium guajava. Common Guava. 

Probably the greatest of all jelly-producing fruits. Common 
throughout Florida. 
Eucalyptus spp. 

Many claim that the right species of the many kinds are the 
most promising of all trees for planting in Florida, because of their 
great rapidity of growth and aid to drainage, since they suck up in 
the process of transpiration many times the amount of water which 
falls upon the surface of their foliage in the form of rain. 

The following kinds have been highly recommended for trial: 

E. meliodora, E. viminatis, E. citraodora, E. robusta, E. rostrata, 
E. crebra, E. corynocalyx, E. resinifera. 
Melaleuca leucodendron. The Cajeput Tree. 

Grows well in Florida and yields Cajeput oil. 

RHIZOPHORACEAE. RED MANGROVE FAMILY. 

Rhizophora mangle. Red Mangrove. 

South Florida and the West Indies. A wonderful tree, grows in 
salt water and of great value in consolidating muddy shores; it has 
been called the "Land Former." Deserves to be protected because of 
the protection it affords to exposed shores in times of storm. Planta- 
tions on the Keys in the shelter of mangroves suffered little damage 
in the great storm of the fall of 1906, while those exposed to the fury 
of the waves bearing floating wreckage were ruined. Seeds of this 
tree have been sent to the Hawaiian Islands to be planted for this 
purpose, and when the mangrove takes hold along the line of the 
railroad to Key West it will safely protect it against the severest 
storms. 

THEOPHRASTACEAE. JACQUINIA FAMILY. 

Jacquinia Keyensis. Joewood. 

According to Nasli, in the Bahamas the bark is mixed with lime, 
placed in a bag and put in the water to stupefy fish. 

223 



THE EVERGLADES 

ARDISIACEAE. MYRSINE FAMILY. 
Icaoroea paniculata. Marlberry Cherry. 

SAPOTACEAE. SAPODILLA FAMILY. 

Chrysophyllum oliviforme. Satin-Leaf. 

Soutliern Florida. Highly prized as an ornamental tree because 
of the bright golden color on the under side of its leaves. To this 
same genus belongs the beautiful "Cainito" or Star-apple, a fruit rel- 
ished by peoples of the West Indies. It might be possible to bud 
the Star-apple on the native Satin-leaf. 

Mimusops Sieberi. Wild Dilly. 

Keys. 
Sapota zapotillo. Sapodilla. 

Naturalized on the Keys, where it is a common fruit. Planted 
also on the mainland. A tree hard to start, but hardy when started, 
jMelds an everlasting wood and a gum called Chicle. 
Sideroxylum mastichodendron. Mastic. 

\'alual)le forest tree of Southern Florida. Grows to be large and 
is quite common, shedding an abundance of yellow fruits which are 
edible in case one likes the flavor. Mastic would probably make a 
satisfactory shade tree. 

Dipholis salicifolia. Bustic or Cassada. 

Southern Florida and West Indies. 

Lucuma Rivicoa var angusttifolia. Ties, or Egg Fruit. 

Chrysophyllum cainito. Star-Apple. 

A fruit highly relished in the West Indies. 
Lucuma mammosa. Mammee Sapota. 



EBENACEAE. PERSIMMON OR EBONY FAMILY. 

Diospyros kaki. Japanese Persimmon. 

Diospyros Virginiana. Persimmon. 

Throughout Florida. There is a curious mix-up in names in con- 
nection with the persimmon and the sapodilla just mentioned above. 
The black persimmon of Texas and Northern Mexico is called 
"Chapote," which is a slight modification of the name Sapota. The 
Spanish for sapodilla is Nispero. the name of the European Medlar. 
From Nispero comes the term Naseberry, a name frequently applied 
to the Sapodilla in the British West Indies. Both words. Persimmon 
and Sapota, are probably of Indian origin, the one North American 
and the other South Americ.in. 

224 



AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA 

OLEACEAE. OLIVE FAMILY. 

Olea Europea. Olive. 

Grows luxuriantly in South Florida but does not fruit. There 
was the same difficulty with it in Southern California. With proper 
treatment it might yield a valuable crop for this region. 

APOCYNACEAE. DOGBANE FAMILY. 

Nerium oleander. Oleander. 

A beautiful ornamental but poisonous. According to report on 
the subject by the Arizona Experiment Station, the physiological 
effects are similar to those of digitalis, and if enough poison is 
obtained the patient is sure to die. Fifteen to thirty grains of the 
leaves will kill a horse, ten to twenty grains a cow, and from one to 
five grains a sheep. 

Plumieria rubra. Frangipani. 

A line ornamental. 

EHRETIACEAE. EHRETIA FAMILY. 

Cordia Sebastina. Geiger Tree. 

Bourreria Havanensis. Strong Bark. 

Bark used in making tea in the Bahamas. 

VERBENACEAE. VERBENA FAMILY. 

Citharexylum villosum. Fiddlewood. 

South Florida. One must not assume from both the scientific 
and common names that this wood is good for fiddles; quite other- 
wise, because the wood is heavy and exceedingly hard. Both names 
are supposed to be mistakes, or rather the common names is a cor- 
ruption of the French "fidele," meaning true or strong, and the 
scientific name is merely a translation of the common name. On the 
other hand, one softer and lighter wooded member of this genus 
might have been used for this purpose. Bello gives the common 
name "palo de guitara" to C. quadrangiilare in Porto Rico, and Cook 
says the natives make their guitars of this wood. 
Avicenna nitida. Black Mangrove. 

Very valuable tree, like the red mangrove, for consolidating 
muddy shores. 

BIGNONIACEAE. BIGNONIA FAMILY. 

Crescentia cujete. Calabash. 

Crescentia ovata. Black Calabash, 

225 



THE E\ERGLADES 

OLACACEAE. XIMENIA FAMILY. 

Ximenia Americana. Purging Nut. 

Called also Mountain Plum, in Jamaica. Fruit eaten. 

RUBIACEAE. MADDER FAMILY. 

Exostema Caribaeum. Princewood. 

Bark a tonic. Would probably make a useful bitters. 
Coffea Arabica. Coffee. 

CofYee has fruited in South Florida. 
Genipa clusiifolia. Seven-Year Apple. 

Fruit eaten. 
Guettarda elliptica. 

Guettarda scabra. Nakedwood. 

Psychotria undata. 

In addition to the above mentioned trees, I have seen two speci- 
mens of Kigelia pinata, the Sausage Tree of Africa; Cecropia peltata. 
the Trumpet Tree: Castilloa elastica, the Mexican rubber tree; 
Manihot Glaziovii, Ceara rubber; one specimen of the true banyan, 
Ficus Indica, a Covillea from Madagascar, and other not sufficiently 
tried to be worthj' of record until they grow older. 



226 



INDEX. 

PAGE 

Acajou trees : 73 

Agents for selling land 10 

Agricultural possibilities in the Everglades, and experiments ni fer- 
tilization 19_ 20. 46 47 

Alfalfa 45 

Almond, West Indian 221 

Annatta 220 

Anonas 46, 21 1 

Apple, Rose 223^ 114 

Apple, Pond "..'211 

Apple, Sugar 211 

Apple, Custard 211 

Apple, Cashew 218 

Apple, Mammee 220 

Apple, Star 224 

Apple, Seven Year 226 

Arborvitae 204 

Ash, Prickly 216 

Australian Pines, or Reef wood 177, 208 

Avocados 13, 46, 160, 162, 164, 220 



Bamboo 48, 205, 219 

Bananas 38, 39, 41. 46, 83, 162. 165, 208 

Banyan trees 118 

Bay, Red 220 

Bay, Swamp 220 

Berrv, Soap 219 

BlollV 211 

Bo, Sacred 211 

Boxwood 219 

Bungalows 83-88, 102 

Bustic 224 

Buttonwood 51, 221 

Cajeput 50, 186. 189 

Calabash 225 

Camphor Trees 186. 188, 221 

Canals : Their Dredging, Dams, and Aid to Fertility 9, 44, 101 

Candlenut Tree 209, 218 

Caper, Florida 212 

Carissa grandiflora 192, 193 

Carissa or Xatal Plums 52, 161 

Carob 214 

Cashew Xuts 111. 218 

Cassada 224 

Cassava, or Sago 55, 218 

Castor Beans 53, 218 

Casuarina Wood 180 

Cat's Claw, Florida 213 

Caussa or Natal Plums 52, 161 

Cedar. Pencil 205 

Cedar, Red 204 



INDEX— Continued. 

I'AC.K 

Cedar, Spanish. 50, 63, 215, 217 

Chattahoocliee Canal 101 

Cherimoyer 211 

Cherry, West India 213 

Cherry, Marlherry 224 

Chicle 36, 51 

China Berry 216 

Cinnamon Bark 220 

Cinnamon, Chinese 221 

Citron 165, 216 

Citrus Trees and Groves 135 

Coco Palms 13, 27, 48, 163, 207 

Cocoplums 213 

Coffee Culture 124, 226 

Coffee Plantations 124 

Conservation of Land 101 

Coontie, Comptie, or Koontic 47, 54, 170 

Copra 30 

Coral Formations 14 

Coral Islands 16 

Corn 45 

Cotton 46 

Cotton, Tree 220 

Cotton, Silk Tree 220 

Crabwood 218 

Crops, Semi-yearly Rotation 10, 46 

Cypress, Bald 204 

Cypress, Pond 204 

Dahoon 219 

Diatoms 147 

Dilly, Wild 224 

Dogbane 119 

Dogwood, Jamaica 214 

Drainage 1-12. 21. 95, 143 

Egg Fruit 166. 224 

Eucalyptus Trees 12, 217) 

Experiments in Rubber 119 

l'"iddle\vood 225 

Fig, Common 211 

Fig. Cluster 211 

l-ig, Golden 210 

I-'ig, Poplarleaf ,..211 

I-"lf)rida Considered as Part of the Tropics 13 

I'^orida Fruits, Alphabetically Arranged 163-169 

I'orage Crops 43, 46 

J'rangipamii 225 

Gaamachil 213 

Gayule Industry 119 

Geiger Tree 225 

Genip 219 

Gooseberry Tree 218 



INDEX— Continued. 

PAGK 

Grapefruit ' 137, 198, 216 

Grapes 58 

Grape, Sea 211 

Goat Bush 213 

Guango 213 

Guavas 52. 114, 161, 223 

Gumbo-limbo Trees 183, 216 

Hammock Lands and Forests 14, 18, 54, 74, 75 

Hookworm 153, 154 

Horseradish Tree 213 

Humus 149 

Importance of Careful Handling of Fruit in Shipment 129 

Inkwood 219 

Inland Canal Route 102 

I ron wood. Black 220 

Ironwood, White 219 

Jak Fruit 211 

Jamaica Dogwood 51, 214 

Jobo Trees 183, 184 

Joewood 223 

Koonti, or Comptie 170-175 

Kumquat 216 

Lancewood 221 

Landes of France 3, 5, 7, 96, 101 

Laurel, Apollo's 221 

Laurel, Spanish 211 

Lebbek Tree 213 

Lemons 167, 216 

Lignum Vitae 216 

Limestone Formations 16, 75 

Limes 161 

Lime Trees 33, 34, 52, 57, 138, 216 

Lime, Wild 216 

Logwood 214 

Loose Tile Drainage Systems 141, 142 

Loquat 213 

Magnolia 212 

Mahoe 220 

Mahogany 50, 51, 60-64, 70-84, 217 

Maintenance of Soil Fertility 44 

Malaria '. 153 

Mammee Sapota 224 

Manchineel 218 

Mango Culture 109-112 

Mangoes 13, 46, 138, 161, 218 

Mangosteen 109, 114 

Mangrove Islands and Swamps 14, 18, 29, 74, 75, 221, 223, 225 



INDEX— Continued. 

PAGE 

Maple. Red 219 

-Mastic 51, 224 

Muck Soil 146-149, 151 

Mulberry, Black 21U 

Mulberry, Paper 210 

Mulberry, Red 210 

Mulberry, White 210 

Myrtle, Wax 209 

Naked Wood 220, 226 

New River; Its Relation to the Canal Project 8 

Nut, Cashew 218 

Nut, Purging 226 

Oak, Live 209 

Oak, Myrtle-leaved 210 

Oats 44 

Oleander 225 

Olives 132, 225 

Olive Tree, Black 221 

Opoponax 213 

Oranges 162. 216 

Palmetto 16. 75, 2tfc 

Palm, Canary I sland Dale 207 

Palm, Coco 207 

Palm, Date 207 

Palm, Fan Leaf 207 

Palm, Royal 207 

Palm, Sargent 206 

Paradise Tree 216 

Paw-paws or Papavas 38. 40, 83, 220 

Peach 213 

Peonage 1 27 

Pepper Tree 218 

Phosphates 97. 151 

Pigeon Pea Bushes 53, 214 

Pine. Australian 177. 2(XS 

Pine, Cuban 204 

Pine, Norfolk 1 sland 205 

Pine, Sand 204 

Pine, Screw 205 

Pine for Construction 16 

Pineapples 13, 15. 79. 1(M-107. 162 

Pineland 14. Id. 74. 75 

Plum. Coco 213 

Plum. Darling 220 

Plum. Florida 218 

Plum. Guiana 218 

Plum, Pigeon 211 

Plum, Spanish or Scarlet 218 

Pecan 2(W 

Persimmon 224 

Pdinciana 214 



INDEX— Continued. 

PAGE 

Poisdinvood 21iS 

Pomegranate _'^1 

Pond-apples 54, 211 

Princewood 51, 226 

Pruning Trees 139 

Rainfall 130 

Rain Tree 213 

Reclamation of Land 10, 42, 43, 96 

Red Cedar 73, 204 

Red Gum Trees 23 

Red Mahogany Gum Trees 23 

Rice 45, 46 

Rootage Reinforcement Process 138 

Rose Apple, or Pomerosa 24, 49, 116 

Rubber and Rubber Trees 117-118 

Rubber Varieties 118, 121, 122, 211 

"Ruinate" Land 197 

Sago 171, 203 

Sand Box Tree 218 

Sandstone 75 

Sanford System of Irrigation 144 

Sanitation 153, 156 

Sapodillas 33, 3S, 4(\ 51, 224 

Satin Leaf 224 

Seminole Indians 11, 19, 170 

Sewage Systems 157 

She Oak..' 220 

Shower of Gold 214 

Siris Tree 213 

Sissoo Tree 213 

Soapberry 219 

Softwood Timber 50 

Soil: Formation of Deposit; Silicious; Limestone; Mineral Mat- 
ter ; Betterment 7, 11, 25 

Sop, Sweet 211 

Sop, Sour 211 

"Sours and Dillies" 33 

Spanish Cedar 63. 68, 73, 215, 217 

St. John's Bread 214 

Stopper Woods 221, 223 

Strong Bark 225 

Sub-irrigation 142, 144 

Sugar 79 

Sugar Cane Developnienl 45 

Surinam Cherries 53, 116, 161, 193 

Tamarind, Wild 213, 214 

Tangelos 1 37 

Tangerines 137, 216 

Temperature 130, 131 

Ti-es 114, 116, 168, 224 



INDEX— Contimu'd. 

PAGE 

Tiniljcr Statistics 60 

Tobacco 46 

Torchwood 216 

Transpiration of Trees Thronghout the Year 22, 98 

Transportation of Freiglit by Water 11 

Trees and r3rainage 21, 24 

Trees for Shade.'. 15(), 197. 200-202 

Trees, Indigenou.s and Native 203-226 

Turpentine . . . . ' 186. 187 

Unit Houses 87-93 

Vanilla 57, 71, 126 

Vegetation 11. 14. 15. 21, 73 

Vines 56-59 

Wells 141 

\Vhite\vood 220 

Willow, Lontj Stalk 209 

Windbreaks 199 

Windmills 141 

Yams 57 

Yellow Wood 216 



)T 17 1912 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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